


One Night Escape - Volume 1

by Tepig28



Series: One Night Escape [1]
Category: Escape the Night (Web Series)
Genre: Gen, Minor Character Death, Original Character Death(s), Original Character(s)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-09
Updated: 2021-01-17
Packaged: 2021-03-08 04:02:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 10
Words: 34,307
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26919289
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tepig28/pseuds/Tepig28
Summary: Tepig Cathun, a gambler, wins a manor in a friendly competition. Excited, she invites ten of her friends for a 1920s themed party, it was a memorable night, but likely not for the reason they intended.
Series: One Night Escape [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1964116
Comments: 1
Kudos: 12





	1. Introduction

**Author's Note:**

> *Will provide new content warnings on necessary chapters  
> *This was a collaborative work with 11 different writers, each managing their own character, a shift in writing style if one is ever apparent, is likely due to one writer controlling a scene more than the others.  
> *To keep the spirit of EtN, players weren't told about future events, and all decisions were made in the moment, so who lives and who dies, who ended up in the games, were surprises to all of us.  
> *The tag #Tepig28projectONE on Twitter is used to archive a lot of information about the project, including art made for scenes, images of the characters, and just some brainstorming screenshots, not just from me, but the others as well, do check it out if you can.

[Thursday, January 9, 2020, Tepig Cathun’s birthday] [Cathun’s house]

"I guess I'm out of money. You win today"

Tepig shoots a glance up at their opponent, "When has running out of money ever stopped you from making a bet before?" She looks down at her necklace with an obsidian stone, "I highly doubt you have nothing you'd else you’d be willing to bet"

Her opponent rolls their eyes and thinks for a second, and shoots a glance at Cathun, where she can immediately tell they have a bet on their hands. She smiles. 

**"Let's do this"**

[Friday, January 10, 2020] [Outside building]

The house is stuck in time and only shows itself to someone with the clothes and personality of someone from the 20s.

"Whatever, probably just wanted me to wear this stupid outfit to the house because they’re salty they lost it."

[Saturday, January 11, 2020] [Cathun’s room in the manor]

"So the deed is going to be handed over on Thursday. I think having a celebration could be fun"

Cathun sits at her desk and begins to write a series of ten letters. 

**[Dear [recipient],**

**A close friend has recently given me a house and is planning to give me the deed on Thursday night, so I invite you to a dinner party to celebrate.**

**Although there is something strange about the house. It only exists in the 1920s. And as such, to enter the house's grounds you must be dressed in apparel from the time period and have the personality of the era.**

**If you try to bring any items from the present age the house will simply never appear for you. I have added some extra information for the party, with your “role” or personality and where to find your rental clothes (as well as an image for assistance).**

**The butler of the house, Stu, will come to your home on the night to escort you in their mysterious time traveling car, I hope to see you all on Thursday. It'll be a night to remember. I promise.**

**Sincerely, your friend,**

**Tepig Cathun]**

After sending out the letters Cathun sighed to herself, "A 1920s themed party, because of a house trapped in time, huh. If they weren’t my friends they’d probably think I’m insane."

She looks at her hands, "Is it really a house trapped in time though? That wouldn't make sense, but they have no reason to lie to me. I don't understand.” 

[Thursday, January 16, 2020] [Foyer] [8:00 PM]

The recipients begin to walk into the Foyer, first to arrive is the Jazz Singer, Clarice Rose Jenson.

Once the singer walks in she stares at the room in awe and begins to search the drawers in the room. 

Next to arrive is Victoria Sarnoff, the radio show host. She looks around the room and sees Clarice, "So Cathun did invite others. Let's see how many of us there are then."

Victoria sits at a desk in the room and sees the next person walk in, the actor, Adrian Silke. Adrian looks around the room, greets Victoria and sits next to her. 

Next to arrive was Clara Reese Ruiz, the Heiress. She looks around talking to herself "I expected bigger." She walks over to Victoria and Adrian and starts a conversation.

Next to arrive was Spencer Roger, the mafioso, who begins to pace the room, looking at everything in the room.

Following soon after was the journalist, Ante Swift. After looking at the room he walks to the group, "Anyone see Cathun yet? I don't see em here." The group all shake their heads no. 

Soon after, the next to enter was the Flapper, Opek Koga. She looks around amazed.

"Who are these people? How'd Tepig get this place?" Opek walks over to the group and joins in their conversation.

Next to enter was Myra Garcia, the mime, who looked in awe and seemed excited, walking over to the group of people talking. Not saying a word in the conversation, just listening.

The next to arrive was Taylor Williams, the Fixer. He looks around the room, looking at what Spencer was staring at "why's he looking at a lamp?" He walks over the bigger group of people who're talking and joins their conversation. 

Last to arrive was the bartender, Percy Billingsly.

"Late as usual, it seems". He walks around the room and introduces himself to Clarice and Spencer, then to the large group of people. 

[Foyer] [5 minutes later]

A voice suddenly speaks from above everyone, "Ah. Everyone has arrived"

Looking up to the second floor everyone sees the host, Tepig Cathun, "Dinner will be ready soon; Come, follow me to the dining room on the second floor." Everyone followed and soon they all arrived at the dinner table. 

The man who drove them all there entered the room from the kitchen, followed by a woman.

"These two are here to serve. Stu here drove you here tonight and will be driving you home after the party, Hazel behind him is here to answer questions you might have tonight"

Stu begins to speak, "The food is ready."

Hazel enters the kitchen and comes out with several plates of food. After three minutes, all the food was laid out on the table. Soon everyone begins to eat and chat.


	2. Chapter 1: Bewarewolf

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> As the clock strikes 9 pm, a scream is heard and one of the party goers is found to be missing, yet in an attempt to find them, they face their first of many trials.

[January 16, 1920(?)] [Kitchen] [9:00 PM]

A clock in the house begins to chime, once it reaches its ninth and final chime, a shriek is heard. 

Most party goers begin to panic as Clara continues eating Percy jumps up excitedly, "FINALLY!"

Adrian looks around, confused, as Victoria stands up and speaks, "Cathun is missing, that scream must've been her, I'll go look, who's following?"

Victoria leaves the room, Adrian, Ante, Percy, Taylor and Clarice follow.

Once the group leaves, Spencer begins to look around the dinner table and sees a card, with a peculiar design on the back, laying on the ground.

Crawling out from under the table he begins to read it aloud to Clara and Opek, who had stayed in the room. 

Once finished reading they run out into the hall and see scratch marks on the carpet, leading from the bathroom down the hall, where they see everyone else and run towards them. 

"We found a note" blurted out Opek. 

"What's in the note?"

**[One of your friends has been taken by an evil in this house, which has no intention of letting you leave the house alive. Should you fail to escape the house by dawn, you'll be stuck in the 20s with no way to get back to your time. To save your friend you must first find the evil that's taken your friend and destroy it. Your next clue should be on the beast's collar.]**

Everyone looks at each other with confusion.

[Years Prior...]

A key smith worked at a local town, being the only one in the town he made a few copies of keys should keys ever be lost. One month there was no business and he had no income. So using his spare keys he broke into the bank one night. Running from the town with all the money he could.

Eventually he stumbled on an empty house. 

[January 16, 1920(?)] [Manor] [9:05 PM]

"The evil in the house? The beas-"

Before getting their questions answered another scream from Cathun is heard along with a loud howl.

"A dog!" exclaimed Ante, immediately running towards the direction of the howl.

"Come back here you dolt!" Victoria runs after Ante. Percy snickers and follows the two, Myra looking between the two groups before following down the stairs.

Adrian shot a glare at the group as they ran down the stairs and turned around to everyone else who stayed behind, "I don't trust that Cathun girl, something doesn't sit right with me."

Opek gives a silent nod of agreement, but keeps her thoughts in her head. 

[First Floor]

Once Ante had completely lost track of where the howl came from light sobbing was heard coming from the study. 

The group walks in and sees a sobbing Tepig with bloody fingertips being shoved into a closet by a large hairy beast, which then pulls out a key and locks it, swallowing the key whole afterwards. 

"It said our next clue was on the beast's collar, right?" Victoria asks and looks in the room as the beast turns towards the door, showing a notecard on their neck. 

Victoria turns to the rest of the group, "So who's going to try and get it?"

As Victoria finished her question a snort was heard from behind her, "Please tell me that's one of you."

The group, with a concerned look on their faces, all shake their head. Ante looks around the nearby area for items, unable to find anything, when suddenly Victoria begins sprinting down the hall. Worried, the group runs after her, the beast following suit.

The group runs outside the manor, but the beast stopped at the door, watching them from inside the house.

"It seems it can't leave the house. But everyone is still inside. I think we should save them."

"Great idea. I'm pretty sure we have some steaks still on the table, I can run inside and try to distract him. Keep him here, I'm going through the front"

Finishing this statement Percy runs off, leaving everyone else face to face with the monster. 

Victoria did her best to keep the beast's attention on her while Percy wandered the house. 

[Outside; Front Entrance]

Percy arrives at the front door and as he reaches out to open the door, behind him is a loud thud, he turns around to see Clara on the floor, surprised, he looks up to where she fell from and looks back down at her, "Go meet up with everyone else on the other side of the house, you're safe as long as you're outside." He turns around and continues running towards the kitchen.

Percy runs into the dining hall looking for steak, and internally screams, "Damn it. We ate it all during dinner."

Percy runs into the kitchen and grabs a kitchen knife then runs out of the second dining room exit, seeing the group that stayed behind in the hall. 

Adrian sees Percy and yells out, "Hey, what do you think you're doing?"

Opek yells and runs behind Taylor, "I know this place is crazy, but we're not just going to kill one another like some death game!"

Spencer looks around and backs away as Taylor moves closer, "Put that knife down. I don't know what you think you're doing, but don't do something you'll regret."

"What? I'm not doing anything. This knife is for the werewolf downstairs"

Adrian looks incredulous, "The WHAT??"

Opek pokes up from behind Taylor, "T-There's a werewolf?!"

"Yeah, there's a werewolf, Cathun is locked in a closet, we're trying to get the clue from its neck. It can't leave the house, so let's go before you get attacked by the wolf."

Percy began to walk back and Opek immediately followed, everyone else following soon after, Adrian being slightly hesitant before doing so. 

The group all walks down together, the sound of footsteps filling the silence. Downstairs, Victoria yelled: "HE'S COMING UP FOR YOU!", followed by a howl. 

The group ran outside while Percy ran towards the wolf and stabbed it, attempting to go for the heart, but landing the hit on it's shoulder. 

The beast groaned in pain as Percy swipes the note and runs outside to meet with everyone else. 

[Outside; Back Exit]

"I got the note"

**[The beast that has taken your friend has locked your friend in the study, and swallowed the key. If you wish to save your friend you must make the beast throw up the key. To do so you need two items.**

**• Poison, which can be found in the kitchen, used to make the beast throw up.**

**• A bone, to cover in poison. Which will be found in the basement, you'll get specifics inside the basement.**

**Once you coat the bone in the poison, the beast will throw up the key and you'll be able to save your friend. The beast and poison should disappear soon afterwards.]**

Victoria immediately begins moving towards one of the side doors since the wolf was still in the foyer. "I'll try to get the poison then, don't know what'll happen if it were in your hands. Who's going to distract the wolf so it doesn't ruin our plan?"

Clara raises her hand, "I'll do it. I can't let you guys do all the work."

Clara ran to the opposite entrance with a slight limp and began calling for the wolf. Running in and out of the house until she saw Victoria run past the foyer with the poison in hand. 

The group, poison in hand, ran towards the basement. 

[Basement]

Entering the basement the group sees a table with a note on it, Stu sitting at the table, waiting. 

"What're you doing here?"

"Read the note and find out."

**[To get the bone, one person must be selected by vote to activate a machine in the next room over, after a matter of seconds, the bone shall be yours.]**

"Vote?"

Stu stands up and shows a stack of paper on the table, a pen, and he removes his hat and places it on the desk. 

"You shall select one person among you to vote for and it will be placed in this hat. The limitations for this vote are that it can't be me, Sir Cathun, nor Hazel."

Everyone looked at each other in pure disbelief and silence. 

"So who's voting first?"

"Can we strategize about this for a bit first?"

Stu sighs, "You will be given five minutes."

[5 Minutes Later]

"Time is up." Stu interrupts the discussion. 

First to vote was Adrian, followed by Victoria, Opek, Clara, then Ante. 

Spencer walks to the table and turns to Clara, "I'm voting for you. You're useful and all, but you're not in the best state right now, plus you abandoned us upstairs. This thing probably kills, it has to be someone expendable."

Spencer writes down Clara's name and sits down. Voting next were Clarice, Myra, Percy and Taylor. 

After Taylor sits down, Stu begins to shuffle the papers in his hat and pulls out one slip of paper, glances at it and looks at the group.

"Spencer Rodger."

Spencer stands up, "Dang. Well, it's not like I didn't expect this to happen. In I go, I suppose."

"Follow me, sir."

Stu opens up the door to a dark room. Nobody could tell what was in there. "The light switch is to your left, but I must ask you close the door before turning on the lights"

Spencer nods his head and steps inside, closing the door behind him. 

A second or two of silence go by before the faint voice of Spencer is heard, "The hell is-". The quiet voice suddenly shifted into a much louder yell. The sound of liquid splashing on metal was heard, followed by a plethora of loud cracking sounds, along with the screams finally ending. Only for the room to be filled with silence.

Stu pointed to a rusted pipe poking out of the wall that connects to the room, "Your item's arrival is going to come from there."

After a few seconds, a bone came from the tube, partially cracked and being slightly stained with blood. 

Victoria walks over to it, "I guess I'll use the poison now…Is that blood fresh?"

Adrian comments, "Yeah, that doesn't look like fake blood to me."

Stu locks the room, "I don't know about the state of the bloodied item, but we can get rid of that wolf who has Sir Cathun held hostage now, that's what we all came here to do afterall."

"I need some fresh air." Taylor blurts out and begins quickly walking outside, Clara follows, screaming quietly. 

The group leaves the basement, hoping to forget the events that took place in that room. 

"Can I take the bone to the werewolf?" asks Clara, "I want to be more useful after what Spencer said…"

Victoria handed Clara the bone, "Don't hurt yourself doing this"

Clara ran into the manor and got the beast's attention, and threw the bone onto the floor, the wolf immediately ran towards the bone and began to chew. Midway through a bite the beast begins to gag and throws up a key, and runs deeper into the house.

Clara picks up the vomit soaked key and goes to the Study, unlocking the door. After the door unlocked, the key disappeared in Clara's hand, the poison vanished from Victoria's grasp, and a howl was heard in the distance, fading away into the night. 

Clara opens the closet and Cathun's unconscious body falls out, with a note stuck to her back and a key in the closet, by her feet. 

The rest of the group runs into the room to see the unconscious host and begin to read the note. 

**[You may be aware of the evil in the house. The beast was barely the beginning, due to the large amount of evil here, the Society Neutralizing All Rising Evil, or SNARE for short, has trapped the house in a loop of the 1920s, to make sure the evil doesn't escape. Sadly that means you're stuck here as well, and will be if you don't leave by 6AM. To leave you must remove all the evil in the house, by getting the artifacts in the house and performing a ritual to remove the evils and the barrier on the house. Your first clue for the first artifact shall be in the ballroom.]**

"The ballroom, huh?"

As the group finishes reading the note, Cathun slowly begins to wake up. 

"What're you all doing? Did something happen?” She scans the group, “That’s nine... Is someone missing?"

[Chapter 1 End]

[10 Alive]

\-------------

Post project comments from Spencer's writer, Nuzzlyleaf: "If you're reading this, stay frosty! Just because you're dead doesn't mean you can't be involved"


	3. Chapter 2: No Plans, No Strategy

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> With Cathun retrieved, the group now has a lead on what their course of action should be. But it doesn't go as well as was hoped.

[January 16, 1920(?)] [Study] [9:30 PM]

Shaking, Cathun slowly begins to lift herself up, and Myra begins to help her up, noticing the bloody fingertips on her hands. Opek gives a sigh of relief, as Clara, Adrian and Percy walk off to exit the room or sit down. Clarice leaves the room with an audible yell.

As the light headed Cathun finally gets on her feet Victoria explains what happened, "We voted Spencer to go into this room, so we could get a bone to deal with the werewolf. But it's been a while and he never came out. I fear he never will"

After Victoria finishes her explanation, Percy gets up and grabs the key from the closet floor. "So is this for the ballroom then?"

"I guess so...Let's gather everyone and get to the ballroom"

"I'll lead the way" comments Stu, opening the door for everyone.

Percy and Victoria begin to walk out, followed by everyone else in the room.

[Ballroom]

Percy puts the key into the locked door of the ballroom and turns it, as the click of the door unlocking is heard, the key disappears and the door opens.

Inside the room was a man, practicing a two-person dance by himself. He turns to the door and stops. 

"Welcome, are you lot in need of something?"

Clara looks away from the man, walking behind the person in the back, Adrian.

Opek begins a conversation, "Who are you?"

"Me? I'm the owner of this house."

Cathun weakly asks, "Why were you dancing by yourself?"

"Well, there was a spider man who took my dancing partner while we were practicing, I was kind of hoping that if I kept dancing they'd come back and take me too, but I guess not"

Ante pushed past Opek, "Did this spider person have some sort of artifact?"

"Artifact? It had some weird necklace with five gemstones on it. But nothing else stood out"

Opek looked interested, "Where did you last see this spider character? And what did this necklace look like?"

He leans forward, "Like your necklace, but rather than just the one gem in the center, two were on the left, and two on the right of it. The gems were a deep purple, like that one" he points towards Cathun's necklace, "a darker red though. As for the spider however, I saw her go outside, but I can't leave the house."

The man points to the back door, covered in spider webs. "Through that door, that should be where you find the necklace and the spider."

[One Year Prior...]

Four dancers compete against each other in a tourney. In the semi finals they were assigned a partner to dance with. Determined to win, one dancer decided to make a gamble.

They were given an offer: At the cost of their partner's life they'd become the best dancer in the competition.

Yet they wanted more, and declined the offer, asking instead to get their competitors to forfeit. 

The agreement was reached. Yet a life was still requested in return, and he offered his partner. 

[The Week After] [Before the competition]

The competitor's partner approached, requesting that he come with her. He followed, they left the grounds of the competition and went to a manor.

"This is where me and my partner practiced...then he disappeared. We weren't assigned partners but I saw that yours was missing too. Maybe we could still win together, I asked to postpone the event on behalf of all of us"

He agreed to her request.

[January 16, 1920(?)] [Ballroom] [9:35 PM]

Seeing the web-covered door, Opek and Clara are scared, while Ante begins to walk towards it, but stops in his tracks as he hears Victoria's voice.

"Why're you here? And why did you just stay here dancing?"

"I'm here because I was practicing for something", the man grabs the back of his neck nervously, "As for why I can't leave, that door was locked and the spider cut me, and left this note."

The man pulls out a note from his pants pocket. 

**[You've been injected with a poison, however, it's only deadly should you come into contact with spider web or fresh outside air. However you can be cured of this poison should you dance with the creature that gave it to you.]**

"And he hasn't come back, so I've just been stuck in this room for the past day."

"One final question," begins Victoria, "Were you invited by Cathun?" she points to the girl slumped over on a chair. 

Cathun sat up after hearing her name, "I may not be fully recovered, but I know for certain that I wasn't told about this man before coming here. The ballroom was locked before now."

Victoria furrows her brow. "Wait, if this guy says he owns the place, then who the hell did you get the keys to this place from? This doesn't make any sense."

Cathun sighs, "You read my letter, I was given the house by a friend. I didn't know he was in here."

She gives a disapproving shake of her head but drops the conversation.

After waiting for the conversation to finish, Ante sticks his head through the cobwebs, through the obscured vision, he sees what looks like a disco ball hanging from the second floor. On the floor were cobwebs in a checkered pattern, on it was a woman and a large spider, he couldn't tell the size at a distance, but knew it wasn't an ordinary spider. 

Ante slowly backs away and goes back into the Ballroom, telling what he saw to the rest of the room. Clara immediately leaves. 

"I'd say we've found our spider and the lady, at least" Victoria laughs nervously. 

"A checker pattern?" Adrian walks over and peers out the door. Having a much clearer view now that Ante moved a few of the webs, Adrian sees it's set up in an 8×8 square. Quickly they notice the spider is now turned to look at the ballroom door. Adrian has a much clearer view of the figure than Ante did. Four arms, some human, some not. Four legs, some human, some not. Nervously, Adrian waves. 

Clara returns, "I couldn't find any wine..."

Confused, Ante walks over to Adrian.

Adrian whispers, "Didn't you see the spider?"

"I mean, it was a big spider yes, but..." Ante looks outside. "Ah, fun."

"At first glance I thought it was maybe half human. But it appears I was mistaken."

"It might not be half human, but it isn't exactly full spider either..."

The two go back inside the ballroom. "Do we have any plans?"

Victoria responds, "I mean, we don't have much of a choice. We're going to have to approach the spider."

"I'll go in if someone else goes in with me" Adrian volunteers.

Ante takes his pen out of the pocket in his jacket as a sort of weapon. "I haven't done a lot for the team, I'll come with."

"Very threatening. but thank you."

Victoria walks over, "I'll go with you too. It's better than waiting around here."

Clara responds, "I'll wait back here, but call me if you need me. I'm here to help if you need it." Taylor nods, staying back with Clara.

Myra, Clarice and Opek stay back, silently yet visibly nervous.

Cathun walks over, her steps becoming more steady as she continues. Adrian nods and begins to leave.

Percy is slightly hesitant, staying behind a few feet, "I'm coming with you guys. I just think we should space ourselves a bit in case of bad things."

Behind Percy, Stu walks slowly behind. While Hazel stayed behind to watch over the guests in the Ballroom.

As the group went outside to confront the spider, they noticed the woman and spider were no longer dancing. The woman was stuck to the wall with web and the spider was walking towards the group. 

The group was now able to see that the disco ball Ante had described was a ball of webs. And, confirming part of the story of the man, the spider had the necklace, but the gems seemed to be missing. Their face was easier to see now, the mouth human, yet their eight eyes an assortment of both spider and human.

The spider stops meters away from the group, "Who're you and what do you want?"

Ante responds, "You know anything about an artifact or something?"

The spider shrugs, "I have no idea what you're referring to."

"Why did you kidnap her? What do you want?" Victoria asks, staring at the woman stuck to the wall. 

"I didn't kidnap anyone. She's my dance partner." the spider looked slightly agitated.

"If she's your dance partner, why is she currently attached to that wall?"

The spider answers, with every word his tone growing more annoyed, "I have my reasons. Now, answer me, why are you here?"

Ante cuts in before Victoria makes more accusations, "We're looking for some sort of artifact. Could it have something to do with your necklace?"

The spider grabs his necklace, "I was given this when I first arrived here in this state. Yet I was told to not give it up for free. If this is what you want, then I suppose we must make a deal"

"What...what kind of deal?"

"I'm unsure of this thing's importance. But I was told to hand you this should you ever arrive. Meaning it must have some importance, as it says you have to sacrifice a life by vote, as a fair trade"

The spider pulls out a note from a vest pocket, unfolding it as Adrian reacts, "Another life by vote?!"

"Another?", the spider whispers to himself as he hands Stu the note. Stu begins reading out loud to the group. 

**[In order to get the necklace needed to contain the stones, you will vote two people to compete in a modified match of chess. The loser shall have their life taken.]**

"..." Victoria stares blankly before looking up at the spider, "Who gave you the necklace?"

The spider shrugs, "Never saw their face. They had some strange effect on their voice too, I don't know who could've done it"

Stu was already opening the door, "Come inside, we must tell the others and discuss voting."

[Ballroom]

Stu sits down and takes off his hat, placing it on the table, "You all have five minutes to discuss."

Opek immediately starts talking, "Well, who can play Chess? I think I can do it pretty well. But we have to choose two people, how's this done?"

"You each vote for one person. Two names will be drawn." Stu responds, still setting up the station to vote on. 

Opek continues, "Well, then the people with the most votes have the highest chance of getting picked. But if we want to just have it be random, everyone can just vote for someone different."

Cathun, still unsure how voting works, responds, "Well, there's no guarantee that everyone will uphold their word and each vote someone different."

Percy sees that Stu finishes setting up, walks through the group and writes down a name, putting it into the hat.

"Yeah" Cuts in Victoria, "I don't think that random is the best choice either."

Ante responds, "Honestly? Random really isn't a good idea, some people have done more than others and random could end up badly"

"Not a great choice, but it was just a thought" Opek pouts, "So who here knows how to play Chess?"

"It's modified chess. It could be completely different from normal, making it completely pointless." Victoria responds. 

"I don't really care, honestly" Ante responds, "I have a good idea of who I'm voting for."

Opek walks over to Stu, writes down a name and places it in the hat. 

Clara speaks up, "How are we voting? Should we vote for ourselves?" 

Adrian is silently thinking, when she gets up and walks over to Stu, writing a name and sitting down.

"Everyone's been pulling their weight decently. So this is much harder than last time." Clara continues.

"I'll probably have an advantage" cuts in Opek, "Even if it is a modified version of chess."

"Well…" Adrian speaks up, "If we put two people who know the game against each other, we'll be losing someone valuable."

"Well if that's the case" Ante responds, "Let's just put in two people who haven't done anything."

"But who hasn't done anything?" asks Clara. 

Ante looks over at Taylor and Myra before covering his face with his hat.

"What's Myra done so far?" asks Clara.

"Been a mime." Adrian responds, jokingly.

Clara walks over to Stu and writes a name, placing it in the hat and walking back to the group. Victoria goes soon after her, followed closely by Ante, Clarice, Myra and finally Taylor. 

Stu shakes the hat and pulls out a slip of paper. He reads it and looks up. "Myra Garcia."

Myra lets out a small sigh underneath her breath. She accepted her fate and went forward.

The hat is shaken again and a second name is pulled. "Taylor Williams."

Upon hearing his name, Taylor freezes up.

"Now then" Hazel speaks up, "There's more to the note we have to read now."

**[The two selected by vote shall participate in a game of chess, where they are the king. They shall each appoint a Knight, a Rook, a Bishop, and a Pawn. The job of these people will be to protect the King. The King can give orders to the Pawn, but not the Knight, Rook or Bishop. Your goal is to kill or checkmate the other king. If the King does not give orders to the Pawn, the other "pieces" can decide who moves. The King decides the placement of the "pieces", as long as it correlates to where it would be on a normal chess board.]**

"As your name was chosen first, Myra, you must first appoint a Knight."

Myra finally gives up on miming everything, "I choose Percy."

"Now, Taylor, choose your Knight."

"Adrian."

There's a glint in Adrian's eye, her pose becomes a more regal one as she walks over to Taylor.

"Myra, pick your Rook."

"Ante."

Ante loosens up, not looking as tense as he once did. 

"Taylor, your turn."

"Opek."

Opek looks scared. 

"Myra, your Bishop."

"Victoria."

Victoria nods and watches the other team.

"Taylor."

"I choose Clara."

Clara smiles and nods. Joining Taylor.

"Myra, choose your Pawn."

"I choose Tepig." she looks over at the still barely conscious girl. 

"Then Clarice is your Pawn, Taylor. As Myra chose her pieces first, Taylor, your team will be the white pieces, so you place your pieces first."

Opek was moved to H1, Adrian was placed at B1, Clara at C1, and Clarice at F2. After, Myra began moving their pieces on their side. Ante at A8, Percy at G8, Victoria at C8, and Cathun at D7.

The kings each take their place, Taylor at E1 and Myra at E8.

[ [ Starting game board for reference ](https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/730579821247201500/730896073320562708/1591663038079.png) ]

The game starts, and Adrian moves, B1 to C3. Followed by Ante, A8 to B8. And then Clara, C1 to G5.

Myra asks Ante to move, "How about B8 to B5?"

"I think NOT" Ante objects, "I'd rather not die on the fourth turn. But I guess the only real moves are me or Victoria..."

Percy begins to speak, "Probably C8 to A6, or maybe even B7..."

"No...I think the best move we can do right now is to move G8 to E7" Ante shrugs, confused. 

"I'll trust you on this. But we better win..." Percy moves from G8 to E7.

Opek laughs, "Did anyone bring snacks for while we do this?"

Clara tells Opek to go from H1 to H8, "You didn't think I'd do that trade did you?"

Ante responds, "I didn't have too many options, really"

"Check", Taylor looks over at Myra and Opek. 

Clara snickers, "The only move you have is to move Percy back"

Ante thinks for a second, "There is another option, actually..." he turns to Myra, "Move to F7."

Myra nodded and did as she was told, moving from E8 to F7. "I don't know what I'm doing, so I'm counting on you."

Opek retreats, moving from H8 back to H3. Myra commands Cathun to move from D7 to D6, so she does as told. Opek moves from H3 to F3. Myra moves from F7 to E8. Clara moves from G5 to F4.

"This may be an issue..." Ante begins talking, "I don't think we have very many moves left here…"

Cathun speaks up, "I know I'm a Pawn, so I don't have very much say in the game but I think you moving from where you are now to B6 may be the best option at the moment."

Ante looks around to scan the board and then proceeds. B8 to B6.

Opek moves from F3 to D3. 

Cathun turns around, "Percy, do you mind going over to F5?"

Percy nods, "I'll move as suggested, just please win. What would my chess club think if I lost?"

Percy moves from E7 to F5, followed by Adrian moving C3 to A4, Ante moves B6 to B7, Taylor goes E1 to E2, Victoria C8 to A6. 

Opek looks forward, "Um...I can probably take the Pawn right now if it'll help on our end."

Ante responds, "Um...Opek...I know that...you want to win as well but...if you moved, I don't think anyone would hold you responsible."

Adrian comments in a voice almost not like her own, "A knight should never betray their lord!"

Clara begins to strategize out loud, "We should move you Taylor, if they take Opek, we take Victoria."

Taylor looks at her, "So D2?"

"I think it's the only option we have."

Taylor moves from E2 to D2.

Victoria gives a sigh of relief, "If we'd given up at the beginning we would never have had this chance."

Taylor responds, "Don't get too ahead of yourself, the game's not over yet."

Adrian begins to talk, again with the same voice of the knight, "My sentiment extends to the opposing team, of course, I never expected this to be easy."

"I will fight with my every breath to win!"

"That's the spirit!"

Ante was thinking throughout the discussion and finally spoke, "I'm sorry, but I have to give you an ultimatum, We can't lose this edge." He moves from B1 to B4.

"What ultimatum are you talking about?"

"I either take your Knight, your Bishop, or your Rook, if they decide to come in and save em."

"Oh…" Clarice looks over to Taylor, "I'm sorry Taylor, for whatever happens" She moves from F4 to D6, removing Cathun from the game, she begins to shine and vanishes, unable to be seen by the others.

Ante smiles, "Sorry Adrian, I know you were enjoying your part, but we can't lose!" Ante moves from B4 to A4, removing Adrian from the game, much like Cathun, she glows and disappears from the game board.

Opek looks at the board, if I go to D5, Percy can't take Clara, right?" Opek walks from D3 to D5 without waiting for a response. 

Ante goes from A4 to A2, Taylor goes from D2 to C3, Ante goes from A2 to F2, removing Clarice from the game, Opek moves from D5 to A5, Ante moves from F2 to F3, Taylor goes from C3 to B4.

"I may have messed up…" Ante goes silent, looking at the board, and all the player's faces, confused and stressed. 

"I just...don't...know..." Ante looks to the floor, "You know what? That's just it. I  _ don't _ know..." Ante looks up at Myra, "This game is gonna turn out pointless, so sure. Let's just prolong it even farther. But now...I'm starting to think I voted for the wrong person." Ante looks away from Myra, "Because this is your game, Myra. Not mine. Go ahead and move if you want, Victoria. But at this point...I don't care."

Myra sighs, "...so this is the end of the road, hmm? So be it. I’d rather take myself down than drag everyone else down with my incompetence."

Myra steps forward. E8 to E7, placing herself in checkmate. 

The webbing on the floor begins to fade, the players eliminated during the match being visible and audible to the others once more. The woman stuck to the wall pulls herself off and walks over to the spider, and bites its arm. The spider immediately falls to the ground, opening its mouth to scream, but dying before it was able to. She rips the necklace off the body. 

The woman kicks Myra onto the floor and stabs a needle into her neck. Myra goes limp within seconds. 

She sighs, "That was stressful. Let's go back inside, shall we? Especially if you want to get these gems for this necklace like you say."

The group stood in silence and shock, staring at the woman, the first sound in almost half a minute came from Adrian in a noticeably deeper voice, an exasperated "FUCK OFF".

The woman pulls out another needle, puts it in her mouth and then pulls it out, "Do you want to make enemies right now? With me or those friends you came with?"

Adrian quickly recollects herself, her voice normal again, and replies, "No, no, I just lost myself for a second. I'll do what you want."

She smiles and walks into the ballroom, everyone following after, except for Ante, who stares at Myra, closing his eyes and murmuring under his breath, "Should've just thrown that letter in the trash gone back to coding..."

[Ballroom]

As Ante enters the room following everyone else he sees the lady, needle in mouth, dancing with the man in the ballroom, the two begin to fade away, finishing their dance two items fall to the ground where they stood; the necklace missing its gems, and a notebook.

Cathun, the closest at the time, picks up the notebook and reads the first page. 

**[The first of the five missing gems can be found in the changing room, behind the mirror. The third owner of the house was often known as the soldier of the seas.]**

"There's a room back there?" Cathun scratches her head, "This place is bigger than I ever would've thought."

[Chapter 2 End]

[9 Alive]

\----------------

And now, a post project message from Myra Garcia's player, PurePari:

“Even if I didn’t have a major role, I had a good time with this project, and I hope anyone reading sticks around until the end. Everyone involved poured their heart into this and it’s truly great. Also, to anyone reading this, I hope you have a good day.” -PurePari


	4. Chapter 3: Spin to Win the Gem

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After finding the notebook, the group is led to the mysterious room behind the changing room, here they shall face their third challenge, for their first gem.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Content Warning: The death game for this chapter includes russian roulette. As with many of these challenges that may involve guns in the future, it is not advised replicating to play with friends, just don't play russian roulette. K, thanks, have a good read.

[January 16, 1920(?)] [Ballroom] [10:30 PM]

Opek begins to shake, holding herself. 

Ante looks around for a clock then looks at Victoria, "You have a pocket watch, right? Do you know what time it is?"

Victoria stares at Ante for a few seconds, somewhat confused, shaking her head then pulling out her pocket watch, "It's 10:30. We've been doing this for about an hour and a half."

"I-It's nearly 11?! We've only got a little bit more than 7 hours until we're stuck here then..."

"Looks like we know where we’re going next..." Taylor responds.

"We should probably check it out..." Clarice responds nervously, "at least, if you guys want to."

"I'll show you the way then" Cathun says, glancing over at Stu, who had led them to the ballroom previously.

[Changing Room]

As the group arrives in the room, Cathun leading the way, they spot Hazel already in the room, waiting by the mirror. 

"You lot took your time." Hazel stands up, pulling down the mirror to open it, revealing a hall behind it. "Here lies the third home owner. I wish you luck."

Hesitant the group walks through the hall, at the end was a room with a man sitting in the center of the room, reading a slip of paper.

As the group steps closer the man looks up, spins a revolver and points it at the group, "Pause. Identify yourselves."

Adrian lets out a barely audible groan and Opek moves to the front of the group.

"C-Can we please put the gun down!?"

"That is not a name. Why are you in my house?" the man stands up, still pointing the gun at the group yet not taking his eyes off what he's reading.

Clara moves to the front, stepping closer to the man as she begins to speak, her voice shaky, "My name is Clara Reese Ruiz. We would like to request safe harbor through this part of the house, if that's okay with you."

"You've given a name but I haven't a reason to let you through here yet."

Victoria raises her hands to express that she's not a threat, "We don't have the option to leave. We're stuck in this house until we can gather all the gems for this necklace." Victoria points at the necklace with missing gems, which Opek chose to wear.

"That works." the man pulls down the gun. "Is that one of the gems you're talking about?"

The man points towards a container, visible inside is one of the gems, similar to the one Cathun's wearing, though a different shade, as the dancing man had told them before. The container's door having a key lock. 

Clara glances at the container and back towards the man, "I mean, yeah? Is there any way you will just hand it to us?"

"Can't do that. I didn't put it there, according to this note you lot have to get the key yourselves"

Victoria tilts her head, "What note?"

"Someone came in here not too long before you did. They placed that Crystal in there and gave me this note, then left, was reading it when you all came in here."

"What does the note say?" asked Opek.

"What I can understand is that I'm not allowed to help you guys, but you have to play some sort of game, or at least people selected by vote or something of the sort do."

"Who gave you the note?" asked Clara. 

"Couldn't really identify them, their face was obscured."

"Well, what's the game?" asked Opek. 

The man sighs, "I'll just read you what it says, even if I don't know what it means, maybe you lot will, you don't seem to be from around here"

**[To receive the key required to get the first of the gems, two people selected by vote, must participate in a game of Battleship, the man sitting in front of you shall lead the two into a separate room, where they shall compete, the rules will be further elaborated on when the two participants arrive in the room.]**

"I believe that's all the information that's for you, the rest is directions on how to get to the room. I hope you know what a 'game of Battleship' means, because I sure don't"

Clara groans, "For once, can we get a jewel without having to vote two people in? Can't we just succeed at this for once?"

Opek sighs, "I don't think we have a choice..."

Ante speaks up, "Hell no." He points to the man in the center of the room. "Give me that gun and I'll just shoot that fuckin' container. I don't trust this 'battleship' nonsense for a second."

The man points the gun at Ante, finger on trigger, "Learn to follow the orders you're given or face the consequences."

Adrian responds, seemingly worried, "Whyyyy can't we though? I get that there are rules but are you gonna shoot us based on something you think is true? You said yourself you don't understand these games."

"I may not understand the rules of your game. But I understand the orders I'm given."

He flails the note around and places it in his pocket and stares Ante straight in the eyes, "I know neither of us wishes to die, now do we"

Ante clenches his fists. "I swear I'll-! No, that's...never mind. None of this makes any sense. But I was out of line. Forgive me." He pulls his hat down slightly, and looks away from the man.

Adrian gives a soft, disappointed "oh."

Victoria turns to Adrian, placing her hand on his shoulder, "We have to do that damn game no matter what. Just... don't add onto the deaths needlessly, please. For your sake."

Stu finishes setting up his table, "your discussion time begins now.”

Clara starts the conversation, "Well, does anyone have any ideas as to whom to vote in? I take it we don't have any volunteers."

Opek comments, "Considering what happened last time, I think it's safe to say that this isn't a 'normal' game of battleship"

Victoria sighs, "Normal or not, whoever loses doesn't come back."

Adrian responds, "I doubt anyone here's suicidal and at this point ganging up on people feels... wrong."

"I don't feel good voting a friend to their death, so whatever the group decides on I will follow in their steps. Even if I must vote for myself." Clara laughs softly, "Although I really hope it doesn't come to that."

After a few moments of silence, Opek begins to speak, "Well, does anyone like boats?"

Adrian looks at her, "I- don't think we're gonna be getting on any boats Opek."

Clara speaks up, "I would like to say I have an objection to Taylor being voted in. We shouldn't immediately vote people in who already got voted in."

"I agree." responds Opek. 

"We're relying on the honor system for that, but... yeah, I'll agree to it." Victoria hesitantly agrees.

Adrian nods.

"I...suppose that's fair, although, Taylor is the only one who's come back from a vote." Ante responds. 

"As of now, he is." Cathun shrugs.

"And do we want to throw away Myra's sacrifice to risk his life again?" Clara asks the group. 

Opek looks down saddened at the thought, Ante goes pale at the mention, Victoria looks uncomfortable, Adrian looks irritated. 

Adrian walks up to the table and writes a name, folding it and placing it in the hat. 

Percy looks around at the group, "So uh i haven't really been pulling my weight at all. i've been mostly an observer"

"You helped a little in chess." commented Adrian

"Are you saying you want to get voted in? I would rather not see someone throw their life away." Clara looks at Percy worried.

"I mean, if he is I could at least see where he's coming from. Honestly, I wouldn't be surprised in the slightest if my name turned up in the votes." Ante shrugs. 

"No one here should talk about themselves that way! If you don't carry yourself up high, people are going to view you as a target and you're just going to get yourself killed." Clara seems upset. 

Opek looks around the room and walks to the table to cast her vote. Victoria does the same. 

"I'm not saying I want to be voted I'm just being honest." Percy shrugs. 

Clarice walks to the table and casts her vote, followed by Percy, Cathun, Taylor, Clara, and finally, Ante. 

Stu looks around the room as he shakes the hat. He stops and pulls out the first slip of paper, "Calrice...I will assume this was meant to say Clarice"

Clarice freezes up and tears begin to form, "but...why me?"

Stu pulls out the second slip of paper, "Clarice again…" He pulls out a third paper, "Another vote for Clarice"

Stu pulls out a fourth paper, "Ante"

"Well, I guess I was expecting as much..." Ante sighs. 

The two characters are asked to follow the soldier and are led past the group, outside to a shed. They're asked to enter, in which the man locks the shed from the outside. Inside they see a table, one box at each end of the table, and a revolver in the middle, next to it, a slip of paper.

[Shed]

“Wh-what is this?” Clarice looks around the room. 

"I...dunno, I wonder what this paper is...?"

Clarice notices the paper, but her eyes were fixated on the box with the revolver. Anxious she responds, “Let’s- read the note.”

**[You may have guessed from the room, but this game of battleship won't be as simple as a normal game. You'll retain your 10×10 board but not the ships, instead you'll be given three of the smallest ships, adding up a total of 6 spaces. This is for a simple reason. The revolver sitting on that table has only 6 chambers, yet only one has a bullet. If you manage to hit an opponent's ship, your opponent must hold the gun to their head and pull the trigger. This shall continue till the bullet is shot. When one of you ends up dead, the key shall be rewarded to you. Whoever's name was pulled out of the hat first has the first move. I wish you luck.]**

"A joke...this is some joke right? Do we- do we really have to do this?" Ante begins to panic. 

“Dead? I’m not ready to die!” Clarice glances around the room. 

"I-I don't exactly want to do this, but we do need that key. Or we'll just be trapped here forever. We...we should start." Ante begins to walk to one end of the table slowly. 

“The sooner we get this done, the quicker the pain ends.” Clarice gulps and begins to walk to the side opposite of Ante. 

The two open their boxes, revealing the boards as well as their ships. They begin to place their pieces.

[Behind Changing Room]

Cathun attempts to break the silence, "So. Who voted in Clarice? At least three of us did it seems."

Victoria looks at her, "'Us'? Did you vote for her?"

"I know I didn't vote for her. I say 'us' as a collective."

"Look, I don't want to say it, but I think when it comes to voting, we should be considering who's doing the best at helping us. Not to sacrifice whoever's not doing anything- I mean that if we screw this all up and don't get these gems in time, then all of us are screwed. We need the best of us if we want to do this." Victoria points at the pocket watch. "I hate this just as much as I'm sure you guys do, but it's either some of us who don't make it out, or it's all of us. That's all."

"You make a very good point. we need the best so we can leave before we are stuck here" Percy responds.

"I can't say I agree with you one way or another Victoria. However, I hold no hard feelings if anyone votes me in. If I'm not pulling my weight, or if you think I'm the best choice, let me know. I don't want to die, but I think we all need to be cooperative to make it out of here. Though at the rate we are going, we might not be able to get out if they keep insisting on us voting. Can't we just have a monster choose who dies, instead of us having to?" Clara starts to sound frustrated.

[Shed]

The game begins, both parties unsure of their choices.

"B4" Clarice starts. 

"Miss. H6"

"Miss. A10"

"Hit..." Ante sighs, leaning over to pick up the gun as Clarice begins to panic. 

Ante grabs the gun slowly and takes a shaky breath, before putting the muzzle of the gun to his temple. Pulling the trigger, no bullet is fired. The two both sigh in relief. 

Still shaken up, Ante continues the game, "J-J4"

"Miss. B10"

"Miss. D10"

"Miss. D1"

"Miss. F4"

Clarice lets out a whimper, "Hit"

She slowly reaches out and grasps the pistol. The gun was raised against her temple. Once she felt the metal against her, she pulled the trigger. She felt no bullet fired and placed the revolver back where she found it. 

"G7" she continues the game, wanting it to finish as quickly as they could. 

"Miss. A7"

"Miss. F1"

"Miss. I8"

"Miss. I9"

"Miss. C3"

"Miss. J5"

"Miss. B4"

"Miss. E8"

"Miss. E9"

Clarice sighs, "Hit"

"Hit?!" Ante screams, not thinking it'd hit.

"It's fine." Clarice grabs the revolver without much hesitation, "it'll work out."

Clarice pulls the gun to her head, the second she feels it touch her skin she pulls the trigger. 

The room is filled with the sound of a loud bang as Clarice's body slumps forward onto the table and the gun falls to the ground.

"SHIT! D...dammit."

A box falls out from underneath the table, slamming onto the ground.

Ante looks at the box, and grabs it from under the table, trying his best not to look at Clarice.

Ante hears the door unlock, turning to see the soldier walking in, "It might be best to leave, before you get too sad over this."

Ante holds the box to his chest and rushes past the man, not saying anything.

The soldier follows, closing the door behind him, leaving the body of Clarice behind in the shed.

[Behind Changing Room]

An upset Ante walks in holding a box to his chest, the soldier walks in behind him. Adrian sees them at a glance, yet stays silent. 

"W-What happened in there...?" Opek runs up to Ante. 

"Ante. None of us here blame you for what happened." Clara attempts to comfort him, even if from afar. 

“It...was like battleship, but we had to play Russian Roulette as well. Clarice... lost, and she...” Ante starts to go pale, practically on the verge of fainting, "H-Here, just take this...I can't..." Ante trailed off as he extended his arms out, with the box in his hands.

Victoria takes the box, looking at Ante in the eyes, seeing how shaken he was by the experience.

Adrian manages to shake herself out of her funk and walks up to Victoria as she opens the box.

Inside the box is a key and a note. The note has the seal from the notes given by SNARE in the past. 

"Ugh not another one. Mind if I read this one?" Adrian asks Victoria.

"Go ahead. I'll hold onto the key."

Adrian read the note out loud, with the confidence of an ad libbing performer.

**[We as SNARE wish to help you escape the 20s, but it's becoming clear to us that not all of you will make it out alive. It seems as though the gems for the necklace you're collecting require the souls of the dead in order to work for the ritual needed to lift the curse of the house. Each collects one soul from a nearby victim and uses it as energy for its next spell. It would seem you need to sacrifice more of your allies if you wish to escape, we are sorry that we can't do anything to prevent this.]**

Adrian pauses after reading the note to process what she said and gets a shocked and offended look on her face, "Well thanks for absolutely nothing I guess. Looks like we'll be on our own."

"So... in order to get out, more people have to die...?" Opek looks towards Adrian. 

The soldier turns around and leaves, "This isn't my fight. You all have fun, you seem like you have one hell of a night ahead of you. Who am I to slow you down."

Clara runs up to him, still in pain from when she jumped off the second floor earlier that night, she grabs his shoulder and looks him dead in the eye. "You aren't going to help us out one bit, after we killed one of our own because of you?"

"I followed the orders I was given. I had no hand in your friend dying. Regardless, I have no business with you. You've not any control over me."

"I figured. Please though, if you ever want to help out, we're going to be here. You don't always have to follow orders if they are unjust."

The man glares at Clara and leaves.

Victoria turns and opens the gem's container, the key dissipating when she does. She pulls out the gem from its containment. Opek takes off the necklace and hands it to Victoria to place the gem in, which she does. Handing it back to Opek. 

Cathun opens the notebook, "The next home owner seems to be a Businessman, but it doesn't seem to have any location as to where he may be."

As she finishes talking, oil begins to seep out from the floorboards. 

[Chapter 3 End]

[8 Alive]

\--------------------

Post death thoughts on the project from Clarice's player, GCastelini (Grace):

Personally, I didn’t think the death would happen so soon, that’s why it was sorta memeified. I still regret pulling the devil trigger, but it was still fun to work together in this project. I’m glad I as able to partake in some of it.

P.S. Play Yakuza 0 it’s a great game k thanks


	5. Chapter 4: Capital Punishment

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> As the first floor begins to fill with oil and a strange creature begins to follow, the group has no choice but to search the upper floors. A game of bribery ensues

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The death in this chapter involves drowning, although the depiction of it is not explicit, I was advised a minor content warning

[January 16,1920(?)] [Behind Changing Room] [11:00 PM]

Cathun looks at the ground as oil begins to fill the room, “Oh dear, that can’t be good.” 

Ante gets up, “...Well then, we should get out of here, right?”

Opek begins to panic, “We need to get to the high ground!”

Adrian begins running towards the exit, ”Don’t quote movies at me, run!”

“I wasn’t quoting- just move!”

Adrian spots Ante dragging his feet, so she grabs him by the arm and continues to run as fast as she can while wearing heels. Ante stumbles, but gets to his feet and keeps up with Adrian’s fight.”

Victoria waits for everyone else, not wishing to push anyone, as she begins to move she feels a few drops of oil hit her cheek, in her peripheral she sees a hand burst out from the oil, the tips of its fingers being claw-like, but she doesn’t stop running, mayhaps even running faster, quietly whispering, “what the _hell_ is-” leaving it behind as she follows the group to the stairs.

[Top of stairs - Floor 1 to 2]

Waiting at the top of the second floor stairs, the group sees the oil fill most of the first floor to then finally stop, Victoria and Adrian peer down the stairs.

Victoria touches the oil on her cheek and begins talking to Adrian, keeping her eyes on the oil filled floor below them, “Ordinarily I would say ‘this is going to sound crazy’ but I think we’re _way past that point now_ \- there was a hand in that oil.”

“Like a hand covered in oil or an oily hand?”

“No, like a” she makes a clawing motion with her hand, “I think it was just a hand made of oil? It didn’t look like a person’s…”

“Oh so an oil hand. Wait…” Adrian takes a second to properly register what was said and pales slightly, “So the oil is some kind of monster?”

“I guess?? It wouldn’t be out of the question, considering the werewolf and the giant spider from earlier… I don’t know, as long as it stays down there, then maybe we don’t have to deal with it.”

“Do you think it a poor decision to throw something down there to see what happens?”

“As nice as it would be to throw a chair at it to relieve some frustration, I don’t want to give it a reason to come up here and grab someone.” She turns to see what everyone else is up to, “I just hope we didn’t need anything from the first floor.”

Adrian nods and gets up, having no more questions.

Ante looks at Cathun after some pondering, “You said they were a businessman, right? Any ideas where they might be?”

Cathun opens the notebook and begins to flip through the pages, most blank, “The notebook doesn’t seem to say anything about it.”

“I was asking you, not the notebook, do you where somebody like that might be?”

“I don’t know, the notebook didn’t lead us to any hidden room, and we’re blocked from the first floor, so I’ going to assume whoever this person is would be in a room here or on the third floor.”

Victoria cuts in, “Well..if the notebook isn’t going to help us here and we have these two floors to cover, should we split up and cover them both, or stick together and go through them one at a time?”

“Well if cliches have anything to say about it, I’d say we shouldn’t totally split up.” Adian retorts.

During the discussion Clara glances towards the stairway, noticing a round head shape with pointed cat-like ears and one eye, staring at the group, the figure seemingly rising, even if slowly. 

Clara stops the discussion, “Hey guys, uhh, we might want to move soon, I think we might be dealing with a big cat made of oil here soon. Maybe a tiger? Possibly a lion?”

Adrian looks over at Victoria, “I thought you said it was a hand??”

“I did but the hand wasn’t human!”

Cathun turned to Victoria, “You mean you didn’t bother telling us there was something in there?”

“We can argue about that after we’re as far as possible from whatever the HELL is in that oil, okay?!”

Adrian turns to the hall, “Fuck it lets all go the third floor!”

“I’ll lead the way!” Cathun shouts, having been the only one accustomed to the house’s layout. 

As the group runs behind her, Cathun glances back and sees the creature in its entirety; a large black figure with four arms, oil tracing its every step, its mouth lacking teeth, simply being a void of oil. Cathun, caught off guard, staggers, but catches herself, and refuses to look back.

[Floor 3 Hallway]

As the group arrived on the third floor, there was no trace of oil anywhere, although there was something else, a trail of coins, fifteen total, leading into one of the bedrooms.

Stepping out of the room was a masked figure. They glanced at the group and ran into the room directly across the hall from the room they exited. The sound of the door locking is heard.

Opek comments, “You think that was the businessman?”

Cathun gave a sigh and shrugged, “I doubt it, they don’t tend to leave their rooms I’ve noticed.”

Victoria walks over to a coin and picks it up, one side is blank, while on the other it was the logo placed on a number of their letters, the SNARE logo.

“Hey, this is that SNARE logo. ...Do you think that trail of coins is safe to follow?”

“I mean,” began Opek, “SNARE is trying to get us out, right?”

“If you want to take them at their word, yeah. I’m not exactly willing to follow them blindly, but if it’s help they’re offering, then we should probably take it.”

“I don’t think we should trust them fully. All they’ve done is give us notes saying we have to have more people die to charge this necklace… but we should take the coins just in case.”

As Opek finishes her statement, a dripping sound is heard behind the group. She spins, on guard, to see the hunched oil creature from the flooded stairway moving towards them.

“Um… guys? We should move… now.”

Ante starts moving, “We should go into the room”

Victoria and Opek collect the coins on the ground and run into the room behind everyone else.

Once in the room, the group sees an old man reading a note, behind him, a curtain, “You the future capitalists I was told about?”

Opek looks at the old man, “Future… capitalists?”

“Yes, I was told about some capitalists from the future. Was told to have to have you play some game, listed here as the bribing game”

Ante looks at him, “A...bribing game? Does that mean you have one of the gems?”

“I was told it was in this room, yes”

Opek continues to question the man, “Do we have to bribe with you in order to get it?”

“Looking at the rules here, that does seem to be the case. But it does say something about voting in three people, I don’t know what that means, hopefully you do.”

Ante speaks to himself under his breath, “A-A vote…”

Opek pats Ante on the back.Victoria walks to the old man, “Can I see those rules?”

The old man skims the note, “I don’t see why you wouldn’t be able to.”

Victoria reads the note out loud to the group:

**[3 people shall be voted in, they shall be placed in a machine. The remaining five people will be given 3 coins each.**

**These five must bribe the capitalist, to fill one of the containers with oil, coins can be spread however they wish.**

**The 3 voted in will have three buttons in their containers. Two to reflect the movement of oil to a different contestant, one button per each other contestant, each can be used twice per person. And the final button can only be used when their own container is above 6 coins worth of oil. With this button one can change places with one of the five outside of the containers, placing them in the death game and taking you out. Although all the coins that person had used will become forfeit, this button can be used once per game.**

**The game will end when all coins have been used up and the final amount of oil fills its container.]**

The oil monster enters the room by sliding under the door, once inside, the creature moves to stand next to the capitalist.

Stu knocks on the table he set up, “Discussion time begins now”

[Months prior]

An old man who had recently acquired a large sum of wealth through oil buys a house said to belong to a soldier. The home was filled with a number of inventions scattered through the many rooms, many of which he had no clue how to work, some which he was too scared to touch. 

However, one machine spoke to him, in the most literal sense; it asked the reason for acquiring the specific home, misinterpreting the question, the man simply stated one thing; “Oil”

The machine began to violently shake, and as quickly as it began, it stopped. From beneath the cracks in the floorboards a creature made of oil crawled up and the machine spoke once more; “Then oil you shall receive, although my orders take priority, it should follow your commands, use it as you wish.”

[3rd floor]

Victoria turns pale, Opek turns to her, “Are you okay Victoria?”

She receives no response, so she taps her shoulder, to which Victoria jumps slightly, before exhaling and turning to see who it is.

“Are you okay?” Opek repeats her question.

“Yeah, I um… yeah. I just don’t like…” Victoria gestures at the old man.

“Oh. I don’t know what to really say.”

Clara looks at the group, “As far as challenges go, this is really… bad. At least with the others, you could close your eyes and not participate. With this? This feels unfair.”

Adrian retorts, “Unfair? No, this is more torturous than unfair.”

Clara sighs, “Is anyone going to volunteer to go in there? I mean, I doubt it, but might as well ask.”

Opek looks at Clara, “I don’t think anyone would want to go in someplace like that.”

“Yeah… yeah I know.”

Opek walks up and places her vote, followed shortly by Cathun.

Adrian walks up to place her vote. “I voted for myself this time. In all the death games thus far, getting voted in was a near death sentence. I just don’t think it’s the same this time.”

Ante looks shocked, “Adrian, you...I’d like to apologize for voting for you back in the changing room, even if you weren’t chosen.”

“Oh, it was you? Haha… No hard feelings, I almost put your name in last time too.”

Cathun responds to Adrian’s statement, addressing the group as a whole. “Since we have three people going into this ‘bribery game’ this time around, and even then the people outside aren’t even safe, maybe we should be thinking about a strategy as a group.”

“What did you have in mind?” responds Opek.

“There’s a number of people who’ve partaken in none of the challenges, and there’s a few who’ve done very little, if anything, to contribute to the discussions. Maybe voting yourself isn’t a bad idea, especially if you’ve not taken part in a challenge. You always have the escape button to press if you feel you’re in danger.”

“So you’re proposing we vote in people who haven’t done much to contribute?”

“There’s an escape button, yes, but there’s also more, uh, people.” Adrian responds.

“It’s an idea. Whether or not its a good one is questionable.” Cathun rubs the back of her neck.

“No idea is a good one” Starts Adrian, “they’re all questionable.”

Opek starts a new topic, “If only one person can use the button then that means the other two can’t use it. And by swapping out they’d be forcing someone to die willingly.”

“The button is both a safeword and a poison. You’d have to live with that.” Adrian responds.

Clara jumps in, “I don’t think anyone wants to live with themselves by forcing someone into a death sentence. I also don’t think anyone wants to die.”

Cathun responds, seemingly as if trying to convince herself, “Not necessarily. If you were at exactly six and someone used all three of their coins on you and you sent that person in, you’d only put them in at three coins worth of oil, which could be lower than someone else in theory.”

Adrian looks at Cathun confused, “What Opek is saying is that would be forcing the highest player to be dead. So it doesn’t matter if you put someone in and they survived, someone else will still die and it will partially be your fault.”

Clara mumbles, “At least with Spencer we didn’t know he would die.”

Cathun continues rambling her thoughts out loud, “There’s also the one option, of everyone making a truce to never use the swap button, and simply accepting their fate, but using a restriction like that seems like betrayal waiting to happen.”

“So,” Clara cuts in, “based on my math, we have a potential to make a three way tie, a two way tie, or just kill someone.”

“Bad, Bad, Upsetting but Less Bad.” Adrian comments.

“A truce of non-aggression is not something I see happening.” Clara comments.

“What happiness if we don’t put forward any coins?” Opek questions.

“Seems the rules stated that the game only ends when all coins have been used. So I’d assume the game never ends and we’re stuck in the 20s.” Cathun replies.

Adrian begins to ramble, “I’m voting myself in, but I’m not really ready to die yet...Also drowning in oil sounds like a BAD way to go.”

Clara responds, ”If I end up to be the one to die, I’d rather not go out drowning. If possible, I’d rather you just kill me first.”

Adrian laughs, “Well we haven;’t started yet, lets save the morbidity for a little later, yeah?”

Clara chuckles, “It helps me cope. It’s either that or a full breakdown, so might as well laugh at the inevitability of death!”

A moment of silence filled the room, only for Adrian to quickly break it, she turned to the old man, “Hey, are the capsules soundproof?”

“I wasn’t told” began the man, “but I will assume not, as I am not sure about how the tube being open at the top would handle blocking out sounds.”

Adrian gives a sigh of relief.

Ante turns to Cathun, “Cathun, I actually had a question for you.”

“Go ahead” she responds.

“How much do you actually know about this house? Just in general.”

“I was aware that one of the previous home owners was likely a part of the military, as a number of weapons were scattered around the house when I first got here, Stu and Hazel took most of them, so I don’t know where they are. But a large amount of the rooms were locked when I arrived, so I really couldn’t explore much of the house before tonight.”

“...And you invited us here right after?”

“It’s been like a week, the house has been safe; I expected to get access to more of the house when given the deed to the house…” Cathun grabs her arm, “I guess technically that is what’s happening, just not how I envisioned it.”

Clara turns to Stu, do you know where these weapons are? Some of them could be useful about now.”

Stu responds, gazing in Clara’s general direction but not directly at her, “We took them into town, as we had no use for them.”

Adrian joins Cathun’s interrogation, “How, remind me how you obtained the deed? Do you, where’s the master key? Is there a master key? Why wouldn’t there be?”

Growing slightly annoyed Cathun continues answering questions, “I was supposed to receive it tonight, my friend was supposed to come to the dinner party to give it to me, although it would seem like they didn’t come.”

Clara rolls her eyes, “Great friend... keeping you in an evil house”

Adrian is speechless, she begins to mumble to herself, “have you, have you never been, do you not read... H...”

Stu cuts in, “I’m sorry to bother you, but your discussion time is up.”

“Your...friend, who just happened to not show up, is who was meant to give you the deed?” Ante asks, a hint of skepticism in his voice.

“Why did you host the party without the deed?” Opek asks.

“I thought it’d be a fun celebration where we could all explore the new rooms of the house together.” Cathun’s slightly annoyed tone slowly became more clear as the sentence progressed.

Clara decides to change topics, “So, uhhh, should we vote for ourselves? Because I feel like if we don’t, Adrian is going to be disappointed in us. Showoff.”

“Hey that’s not why I did what I did at all! I resent the insinuation.”

Ante gets up to vote, a look of disbelief on his face. 

“So is anybody else voting for themselves?” asks Clara; the room responds with silence, “Ah hell, I really don’t want to but it’s the right thing. Remember my request though, I don’t want to drown.” Clara gets up to vote.

Opek sits, shaking, “I don’t think I’d be able to vote myself in even if someone asked me too. Considering all the other deaths that happened... a suicicde sounds plausible in theory, but impossible in execution.”

Clara places her hand on Opek’s shoulder, “Hey, no one blames you for not voting yourself in.”

“Indeed,” starts Adrian, “my intention was not to force others to vote for themselves but to pool uncertain votes towards myself.”

Percy sighs, “I genuinely don’t know who I should vote for. I hate having to vote to what could very well be a death sentence.”

“Well,” Clara responds, “ there are two people who have already said they voted for themselves, so might as well go for one of them, right?”

“I guess, but it seems cruel that those who are willing to vote themselves get awarded with a tragic fate.”

“I don’t think they would vote themselves without knowing the consequences of what could happen” responds Opek.

Adrian looks Percy in the eyes and speaks, “I’m playing to win, or. Not to die. Besides, it looks like it’s up to those not voted more on who lives and who dies in this round.”

Clara looks at Stu, who’s impatiently tapping his fingers on the table, “Hey Stu? Is it possible to, uhh, write a note? In case I die? I want my last words to be something dignified, and I’m not certain I’ll be able to compose something if I’m dying.”

Stu nods his head approvingly, gesturing to the stack of papers, and Clara begins to write.

“You say that as if you’re certain you’re going to be voted in this round...” Adrian looks at Clara

“She voted for herself, but it isn’t a guarantee for her to be voted in.” Opek thinks out loud.

“Odds are, even if I make it through this, I’m going to go in again.”

Opek continues to ramble to herself, “If one person dies, we’re down to seven. But if more than one don't make it out we’d lose up to three people bringing us down to five... which isn’t good odds to not get voted again.”

“No matter how we fiddle with the odds, it’s still that asshole over there that picks us.” Adrian gestures at Stu. 

As Clara finishes her note Victoria gets up and casts her vote, followed by Percy, and finally, Taylor. 

Once all votes are placed, Stu shakes the hat and pulls out the first nama, “Sir Cathun.”

Cathun sighs and turns around in her chair.

The second paper taken out read the name, “Taylor Williams.”

The final paper is read out, “Adrian Silke.”

The oil monster smiles and shoots out three of its arms towards the group to grab the three named participants. With its fourth arm the oil monster lifts the curtain, revealing the three clear containers, each big enough for one six foot tall person. It then opens the containers and pushes the three participants into their containers; Cathun on the left, Taylor in the middle and Adrian on the right.

“Augh I COULD’VE WALKED IN YOU ASSHOLE” screams Adrian, looking at herself she mumbles, “Great now all my nice fur is oily.”

The old man turns to Victoria, you can distribute the coins evenly amongst yourselves now.”

Victoria begins to count and hands each of the five three coins.

“Do we want to strategize?” Clara asks once she gets her coins.

“We could strategize but I don’t know how much time we have to get the rest of our gems” Cathun responds.

“Yeah. I know but i don’t want to make the judgement call killing someone without considering the options”

“I have no control over what you decide to do from in here, so I’ll just stay out of your way.” Cathun attempts to sit, but having no room to bend her knees she stays standing and crosses her arms instead.

“I have every intention to press this button if I feel I’m in danger.” Adrian says, narrowing her eyes at the other two, and narrowing her eyes even more at Cathun.

“And who would you sentence to death?” Clara asks Adrian.

Adrian thinks for a moment, “Wait, are you talking about who I’d switch in or something else?”

“Both, who would you give the oil to and who would you switch in?”

“Switching in is less of a direct sentence, I’d personally choose whoever put the most coins into my own tank so they’re negated and the person who goes in my stead will have the least amount of coins I could manipulate. And I… haven’t thought that first question out.”

“The button only works twice per person, so not like you have to think that first question through very much.” Cathun has her hand on her cheek, seemingly very tired.

Opek walks up to the old man, “Well… as much as I hate to get this ball rolling, this challenge isn’t going to end unless we start bribing coins.”

Hearing her statement, the oil monster climbs the tubes, showing that all the tubes united to one central source, which was connected to nothing.

Opek looks at the creature, “Is that where the oil is going to come from?”

The creature enters the central pipe, but not entering any specific tube, the old man then speaks, “All I have to do is give the orders and the game shall start.” He holds his hand out towards Opek.

Looking up at the creature Adrian looks displeased and turns to Stu, who was packing up the table set-up, “Hey Stu if the oil’s cleared up on the lower floors could you perhaps go grab my bag? I left it in the foyer...”

“I’m sorry… I really don’t want to do this…” Opek hands a coin to Adrian, “but I’ll use this coin on Adrian’s tank.”

The right tank fills with oil, spilling from above, all of it accumulates at the bottom, reaching the top of Adrian’s shoes.

Victoria, staying still, glares at Cathun, who currently has her eyes closed, “Is there anything else you haven’t told us about the party or the house?”

Cathun opens one eye and covers her chest with her arms, “Not that I’m aware of.”

Ante stares at the coins in his hands and begins to pace in front of the containers, “I personally want no part in this...I was just going to give one coin to each of you.” He stops and looks at Adrian, “However...I have a favor I need to repay.”

Ante walks to the capitalist and hands him all three coins, “One for Cathun. The other two for Adrian.” Ante walks towards Adrian’s capsule, “Sorry...about your outfit.”

“Its… fine… It…….. I’m not dressing up for the next party I go to…” 

As Cathun’s container fills she holds her chest more tightly, her container reaches the top of her shoes. Adrian’s container fills more, the oil reaches her thighs.

“Hey business man” Clara asks, staring at the containers, “What happens to the chambers once someone dies? Are they still accessible?”

“I was unaware they were even in here until a few minutes ago, I would assume they’d still be accessible; they look pretty heavy.”

“So, Miss Cathun. It has come to our attention that you still have the notebook, which is kind of a bargaining chip here. You know more about the house than anyone else. If you make it out of here alive, I’d like to request that the notebook not be in the possession of any one person after this.”

“IF?!?!” Cathun sighs, “Fine…” She mumbles to herself, “Not like it was of much use anyway.”

“The notebook? What was in it anyway?” Asks Adrian

“The notebook mainly consisted of blank pages, a few pages gave hints about former home owners though, the information it gave wasn’t always useful.”

“Did you put them under a UV light?” Clara asks Cathun.

Cathun unamused, replies, “Where would I find a UV light?”

“Fair point. Kind of forgot the time issue.”

Opek walks back to the business man, “I don’t know what to do anymore… I’m just going to use all my coins and hope for the best. Please put my last two coins towards Adrian.”

Adrian’s tank fills up, the oil now reaching under her chest.

Victoria looks at the coins in her hand and walks towards the businessman, “I don’t know… I… one to each of them.” She leaves to sit, clearly not focusing on anything.

Taylor’s tank fills to his shoes, Cathun’s to her knees, and Adrian’s to her collar.

Clara looks at Adrian’s tube, “Are uh, are you going to switch out Adrian? This is something I should know before I distribute coins.”

“Yes. Currently I’m going to switch with Opek,” She pauses for a second, “Actually I’m just going to. The oil’s a little too high for me to take three more.”

“You did say you wanted to switch with whoever put in three... I’m sorry. I... um... hope the oil gets out of your outfit, Adrian.” Opek apologizes.

“Well. You have the buttons, yes? We redirect all the coins away from you if need be. Or I could do some of it.”

“I’ll be okay” Opek gives a weak smile, “But first, let me take the necklace off.”

Opek removes both her normal necklace and the house’s necklace.

“Actually, at this point it’s fairly dangerous to actually put coins towards who you want to put coins towards. There’s very little guarantee people wouldn’t just redirect it to me right now because…” Adrian glances down, dipping her chin in the oil, “Please don’t put any more than one coin in at a time now...”

Percy walks over to the old man and hands him two coins, “One for Cathun and one for Tayor.”

“OH! Okay, apparently my life is in more danger than I thought, thanks???” Adrian presses the escape button and all three capsules open, pouring all accumulated oil on the ground. The creature pins Cathun and Taylor into their containers. The old man speaks, “Who’s going in?”

“Opek, if all goes according to plan, you shouldn’t die here.”

“I... I trust you.”

“Although admittedly,,,,, we’ve been having PROBLEMS,,,,,” Adrian shoots a panicked glare at Percy.

Percy simply responds by looking at his hand, “So... I have one more coin left..”

The oil monster gently pushes Adrian into the crowd and forcefully shoves Opek into the rightmost tube, the containers filling back up with oil.

The oil in Cathun and Opek’s containers both reach their hips, while the oil in Taylor’s container only reaches his knees.

Clara walks to the old man, “I’m so sorry Taylor. I know this is a betrayal, but there’s not a good option here. I’m so sorry. Three for Taylor, one at a time.”

Slowly Taylor’s container began to fill, the oil stopped once reaching his chest.

“What happens if I keep the coin? Can I keep it?” Percy looks around the room, a childlike smile on his face.

“I don’t think the game will end unless all coins are used.” Opek responds to Percy.

“Just end this, please” Clara sighs, her voice weak.

Adrian takes off her oil covered coat.

“So what happens if I put my last coin on Cathun?” Percy glances up at her.

“Do it and I promise you that you’re not getting back to 2020.”

“Nothing I don’t think” starts Clara, “other than making her angry at you.”

“Wow, you’re getting awful defensive about this specific coin...” Adrian comments.

Percy turns to Victoria, “Hey Victoria, you’re trustworthy and smart, right?”

“....I don’t like that you’re asking me this right now.”

“Here you can get my coin vote.” Percy tosses the coin to Victoria, “Who gets it?”

Seeing a visibly shocked Victoria, Percy shrugs, “I mean, I’m not exactly on track for the ‘most correct decisions made in this mansion’ award.”

“No thanks.” Victoria picks up the missed coin, “Your coin, your vote.”

“Perfect, any consequences my vote have fallen on your shoulders.”

Victoria walks over to Percy and punches him in the shoulder, “It rests on your shoulders.” She drops the coin on the floor in front of Percy.

“Coward!” yells Clara, “I at least had the guts to condemn someone to death, but you can’t even do a simple vote that doesn’t matter?”

“Nope, and I’m still not sure I didn’t have a breakdown at work and am on a lot of hospital morphine.”

Adrian crosses her arms and mumbles, “I’m suddenly thinking I should’ve switched in someone else…” she raises her voice to above normal speaking level, “I’ve literally never met you, why would I be in your dream?”

“Because of a phenomenon where any face I see can be drawn from my subconscious and placed in a dream. You’re probably a customer at the bar I served. Must’ve been a memorable one.”

“I don’t drink in bars..." she begins to mumble, “not enough spare change.” 

“If you want to pass the burden off on someone, give it to me.” Clara comments.

Percy thinks for a second, “HEY ANTE! CATCH!”

Percy tosses the coin towards Ante, who then immediately throws it back, which Percy avoids as if it were a dodgeball.

“HA! I’ve had drunks throw glasses harder and faster than that.”

“Percy, you aren’t getting out of this vote.” Ante said, an annoyed tone in his voice.

“Alright, look, if we get out of here alive, and you are real, I’ll get you guys free drinks for life.” Percy begins to mumble, “I know I’ll sure as heck need a stiff drink by the bottle.”

A knock is heard and Hazel walks in the room holding a bag, “I was told to fetch this?”

Adrian walks to Hazel and grabs her bag, “Is there anywhere I can change real quick?”

“As far as I know, the room directly across the hall should be a fine enough place to change your clothes.”

“Thank you.” Adrian calls to the group, “I’ll be right back!”

Annoyed, Clara picks up the last coin and gives it to the old man, “For Taylor.”

Taylor sighs and mumbles under his breath, “I’m sorry I couldn’t be better.”

As Taylor finishes his final words, the tube is filled completely, draining the last of the oil monster's being.

After a number of seconds, the capsules all open, Taylor's body collapsing onto the ground, on top of it, covered in oil, was one of the gems, though it looked like it had a glow to it that the last one didn't.

In shock, Opek reaches for the glowing gem to add to her necklace.

Adrian re-enters, wearing a normal suit, lacking heels, having short and brown hair and looking distinctively male.Walking in, he sees Taylor’s body, grimacing at the sight.

Cathun pulls the notebook out from inside her shirt and mumbles to herself, “that was uncomfortable.” She flips through the pages, “The homeowner in possession of the third gem is said to be one who could never tell a lie and are able to tell when someone else is lying with 100% accuracy."

Cathun closes the book and sighs, placing it atop Clara’s head.

“You weren’t kidding when you said the notebook wasn’t very helpful.” Victoria sighs.

[Chapter 4 End]

[7 Alive]

\--------------  
  


Post-death thoughts from Taylor's player

"I honestly didn’t know what to expect going into it. I’ve never seen the original show or anything so I had no clue. It was fun though"


	6. Chapter 5: Strategical Deceit

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> As the clock strikes Midnight, a crash is heard downstairs. Not much time remaining, the group follows, hoping this is the person who can't tell a lie the notebook was asking them to find.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Starting in this chapter, following the rest of the book, the characters are going to begin to show some trauma from the events happening in the game, if that makes you u comfortable for whatever reason, I understand if you wish to stop reading here. Otherwise I hope you enjoy.

“Someone who would never tell a lie... do we know where they are?” Opek looks at the group.

Adrian walks up to Opek, “Hey, sorry about the oil. Are you feeling okay?”

“I’m alright... just a little shaken up, that’s all.”

Cathun sighs, running her fingers through her hair she starts walking towards the door and talking to the group, “I’m going to take a shower to get this oil out of my hair and to have a relaxing break, if you want a shower as well, go into any of the guest rooms, Hazel will show you them.”

“I would love a shower.” Percy follows.

Victoria, followed by Ante and Opek, walks out of the room to see the room across the hall, the room where the masked figure had run off to, yet she found the door open, the only trace of life being Adrian’s bag and removed make-up in the trash can. Victoria grabs the bag with a heavy sigh and leaves.

[After the short showers...]

As the group sits in one of the guest bedrooms, discussing the hint, the clock chimes, it is now midnight. As the clock goes silent, a crashing sound is heard from the first floor. 

“I think we found our next home owner.” Adrian comments to the group.

Percy stands up, “If you guys don’t mind waiting, I’ll check out the crash.”

“I don’t think we have the time to wait” Cathun stands up, “It just hit midnight, we still have three gems left to get. Not traveling as a group could be our downfall. Information is the thing we need the most.”

The group all leave toward the first floor, which was now clear, although having remnants of oil on the floors and walls. Eventually, following the sound of humming, the group finds themselves in a large room with a circular table in the middle, the conference hall. Inside was a woman, pacing around the table, her side stained with oil, although the rest of her remained perfectly clean. The woman was reading a note, as she turned towards the door, she glanced up, “You’re the time travelers I presume?”

“Yes that’s us...” Opek walks to the front of the group, “are you here to give us another challenge?”

The lady turns around to sit at the table, “I wouldn’t call it a challenge per say.”

“Another game where one of us has to die?” Clara asks

The lady places the note on the table and begins to search her pockets, “A game, yes, that’d be more accurate.”

“What do we need to play?” Opek starts, “Does it require a vote?”

She takes a number of slips of paper out from her coat pocket, “No voting is required. Everyone should be allowed to have fun, it is a game afterall.”

Adrian mumbles, “Literally every ‘game’ we’ve played has resulted in someone’s death; I’m not in the mood for fun.”

Victoria walks towards the table, “I want to make one thing clear first. You were a previous owner of the house, weren’t you? Did some masked person come by and give you a gem?”

“I was indeed.” The woman smiles and begins to fold the slips of paper, “But that’s not important, as I’m not the one revealing things here today, that will be you lot, as our game here is Truth or Dare. Isn’t that fun?”

Opek pauses for a second, “Truth or Dare?”

“Listen, if we play this little ‘game’ of yours, will you give us that gem you got?” Ante asks slightly annoyed.

“Please just talk normally, I’m really not in the mood for your saccharine shtick.” Adrian comments, voice tired.

Victoria goes to Adrian, offering his bag, to which he simply shakes his head, Victoria raises an eyebrow, but simply keeps the bag.

After placing the folded sheets of paper on the table in front of her, the lady picks up the note and begins to speak again, “As per the note I was given, I am obligated to give you the gem when the game ends, Now...:” she pauses for a few seconds, as if skimming over the note again, “I shall explain the rules of the game as they were explained to me.”

**[Each person is allowed to lie once. If found lying more than once, they shall be killed and there the game shall end. Everyone shall be given a slip of paper, on this paper should be a dare asking the recipient of the dare to kill one person amongst you, although who shall be killed is dependant on circumstance. Truth can not be chosen more than twice in a row, and on a person’s third dare, the giver of the dare shall read what is on the paper they were given, although if one so wishes, they can choose to read their paper earlier than the third. Dares outside of the papers should not cause harm, fatal or otherwise, to another participant. Turn order shall be clockwise from whoever wishes to start.]**

The old lady places the papers in the center of the table, signaling for them to grab one paper, once all papers have been received, she places a gun on the center of the table, “I was given this as well. So no brutal strangling is required.” She smiles.

Ante reads his paper, reading it closer, as if confirming what he just read.

Everyone begins to decide their seating position, the lady sits at 12, Clara at 3, Ante at 9, Cathun sits at 5, Victoria sits at 7, Adrian sits at 1, Percy sits at 6 and Opek sits at 11. 

As Percy sits he looks at the lady, “Excuse me sir I just have one question at the moment. Are you willing to participate in this game of Truth or Dare?”

She shakes her head, “I’ve no stakes in the fight you have, I will simply be a lie detector and mediator for the game.”

Opek raises her hand, “I guess I’ll start if you all are okay with it…”

Cathun leans back in her chair, “Go ahead.”

Opek turns to Cathun, “So, Cathun, Truth or Dare?”

Cathun sits her chair back to normal, “I’ll take a truth, I’ve don’t got much to hide from a former roommate.”

“Ummm... OK, so what is the biggest prize you’ve won while gambling?” 

“I’ve mainly won money, the only other thing of note I’ve gotten has been this necklace, it’s a good luck charm for me.”

“I have questions about the necklace, but I think I’ll have to wait for now, since I think I can only ask once.”

Adrian turns to the lady, “Why are you even at the table if you’re not going to play? Also, am I allowed to ask Cathun again?”

“Once a cycle is complete, I shall give an update on the number of lies that have been told, as well as the number of dares given. I am here to manage the game.”

“You’re interrupting the circle.”

“It’s a game of doubt, I’ll do as I wish. Do you have issues with that?” The lady turns her head to Adrian.

“Yes. And my second question?”

“You interrogate who you wish. There’s no rules against that.”

“Then Cathun. Truth or Dare?”

“I’ll take a truth.” She glances at Clara, “I’ll take my chances.”

“Tell us the story behind the necklace, details appreciated.”

“Was another night with my friend, he ran out of money and wanted to go home. I managed to convince him to play one more bet, I returned everything I gained that night, or win the necklace he was planning to get rid of.”

“He was planning to get rid of... why?” Adrian mumbles.

“Adrian” says Clara.

“Truth.”

“What pronouns do you use? I figured I might as well ask, just to double check.”

“Oh, well when I put on drag, I switch pronouns to she/her but since I... don’t feel like putting energy into that anymore, he/him is fine.”

“Alright, thank you.”

Cathun looks at Adrian, “If we’re doubling up, then Truth or Dare.”

“Fair is fair. Truth I suppose.”

“Why’d you come to the party wearing drag rather than the outfit I rented for you? Thought it was interesting when I saw you in the foyer like that.”

“Well for one it didn’t suit my tastes. I prefer my suits differently styled. Second, I thought this would be fun and I’m more comfortable at parties when I’m performing.”

“Okay. Hey Adrian, Truth or Dare?” Percy asks

“Ugh. Dare.”

“I dare you to tell at least one lie in your next two turns.”

“Uh, sure, as long as that’s within the rules,” Adrian looks at the lady, who simply nods.

Victoria turns to Percy, “So truth or dare?”

“Truth.”

“If I picked dare- if you asked me on your turn, would you dare me to read my paper?”

“NO... I couldn’t straight up kill someone like that.”

Ante thinks for a second, “Yeah, Percy. Truth or Dare?”

“Dare.”

“Right then, I dare you to jump on the table and...do your best dance.” Ante begins to smile.

“Okay, its a two person dance okay?”

“I could always read this paper…”

“The solo robot it is.”

“Um” Opek starts, “I can assist if necessary...”

“No, I’d rather see his robot.” Adrian chuckles.

“Got it.”

Percy does the robot, Ante, Opek, and Adrian all clap, while the others barely react.

Once Percy sits down, Opek turns to Ante, “Truth or Dare.”

“Hm... Truth I suppose.”

“What is your favorite color?”

“Oh, um…” Ante points to his hat, “It’s green. Why I tacked in this beret to Cathun’s outfit recommendation."

The lady speaks, “No lies have been told. One dare has been used up for Adrian and Percy.”

Adrian thinks, “Ante, truth or dare.”

“...I’ll take a dare now, I suppose. Wouldn’t want to be backed into a corner.”

“Figured you would. I dare you to... Ah, insult your least favorite person here.”

“Hey Percy.” Ante smiles, Percy turns to him, “First off, yes. While you may have been rather useful at the start of this tonight, it seems as though you have fizzled out into somebody who is, well, weak. A coward who couldn’t even make a decision that didn’t matter in the slightest. Whenever the rest of us have been fighting tooth and nail just to survive. You have done, well, nothing. Also you’re an asshole.”

“Hmm okay, well thats made a few things easier on me.”

Clara takes her turn, “Hey Victoria.”

“Thats me... I’ll pick truth.”

“What can I do better? I don’t want to be responsible for more deaths, or manipulate people, but I don’t want to die either. What can I do better?”

“...W-well? There’s a lot to say, I guess,” Victoria looks up from the table, genuinely surprised. “I’d say acknowledging that you’re manipulating people here is your first step. And you did that. Now you have to own up to that and try and stop doing it. I know you’re scared. It's been hard, I know,” she says, pauses and glances at the gun, “I know we’ve made a lot of decisions we haven’t wanted to. I wish I never showed up here. You’re not entirely at fault for the deaths, because you had to do that. No one here wants to die. So just... before you say something next time, think about where it puts you. It’s easy to put your own life above everyone else’s, but if you keep doing this it’s going to wear you down. You’ll be alive but you might regret what you’ve done enough to wish you weren’t.”

“Thank you. Now, anyone want to dare someone to do a fun dance to raise the spirits back up?”

Cathun leans forward in her seat, “Well. Then lets see. Who’s not in danger?”

“Danger?” Adrian looks puzzled, “Be more specific.”

“Cathun puts her elbows on the table and rests her head in her hands, “Clara seems to be on people’s good sides, so I doubt we’d have to worry about her gaining many dares. Clara, truth or dare?”

“Truth, I’m an open book.”

“Who did you vote for during the third vote, the battleship.”

“Ah, well. Was hoping a question like this wouldn’t come up, so I’ll answer it shortly. I voted for Clarice. I still don’t feel good about it… Should’ve gone for a dare, but this is a good start to becoming better at least.”

“Okay, it’s my turn now.” Percy smiles, “Hey Ante, truth or dare?”

“Truth, obviously.”

“As I thought. No bother. Ante, if each person here asked you truth or dare, what would you answer to each of them individually?”

“Hm...well, lets just go around. For Opek, I’d say truth. Adrian, dare. Clara Truth. Cathun Truth, you, truth and Victoria, Dare. Did I get everyone?”

“And I will point out something, if you answer this question and its true all is good. But you can think it’s TRUE and if you deviate from what you say it becomes a lie meaning you can’t lie again. Just because I don’t want to make a choice doesn’t mean I’m an indecisive ass. I value life though yours has now got as much value as the gum beneath my shoe.”

“...Why, you little...” Ante glares at Percy.

“So if the next three ask you and you choose dare, this becomes a lie. Limiting your responses.”

Adrian turns to Percy, “Hm? But isn’t it true at this current moment? If the circumstances change, and he would be forced to say dare, wouldn’t that not count? Truth is ever changing after all, I like you significantly less now than before you spoke.”

“It still becomes a lie you told. That’s all they are counting. If you told a lie within the last two rounds. Never said a truth couldn’t become a lie. I liked you significantly more before you spoke, so I’d say we’re even.”

“Even indeed. Sorry, but I am admittedly a bit tired.” Adrian slumps further into his seat.

“It’s okay. You just showed everyone what you’re like when you have all your filters removed.”

Victoria sighs and turns to Cathun, “Cathun, I hate to do this to you but there is something I’d like to know. Truth or dare?”

“I’ve already done truth twice, so I have to go with dare.”

“I....” she hesitates, like she can’t make up her mind. “I dare you to switch papers with me.”

Cathun stands up, walks around the table and places the paper on Victoria’s hat, receiving the paper from her. Victoria reads over her paper once, folds it and closes her eyes. Cathun sits back in her seat, not unfolding the paper she was given.

Ante looks towards Percy, “Percy! Truth or dare?”

Clara lets out a barely audible, “this oughta be good.”

“Truth.”

“I’d like you to tell me who you voted for, at every vote we’ve had so far.”

“I voted Clara, Clara again, then Calrice, and yes I’m pronouncing it how I misspelt it, and then I voted for myself.”

“So you voted for yourself on the last vote? Strange. But understandable, there was a very high survival ratio for that game.”

“Huh, fun.” Clara glances at Percy.

“Hey, mister moderator man, what’s the ruling on half truths?”

“A lie shall be classified as stating something that is known to be factually inaccurate. If one is unaware of what the truth is but states what they believe, it shall ruled as true.”

Opek raises her hand slightly, “Um, gamemaster? I have a question. I think this would be best in example, but… is it possible for say, Adrian to dare me to say and act upon what’s in my paper?”

“Not possible.” The lady shakes her head, “It’s one’s own choices that shall make them act upon one’s own paper.”

“I see...” Opek breathes a sigh of relief. “Thank you.” She turns to Victoria, “Truth or dare?”

“I’ll go with dare.”

A small smile comes across Opek’s face, “I dare you to run around this table once, acting like a bird while you do it!”

She raises an eyebrow but gets up from the table, and runs around the table while plapping her arms and shouting “cheep cheep cheep!”

Opek giggles as Victoria makes it to her seat and sits down.

The lady speaks, “One lie has been told. Adrian, Cathun, Percy, Victoria, and Ante have received one dare each.”

Percy winces after this is proclaimed.

“Sorry about this Percy.” Adrian glares at him, “Truth or Dare?”

“I’ll take truth.”

“Have you lied in response to a truth prompt.”

“Yes I have lied in one of my truth questions.” Percy visibly winces, moving his hand to his heart partially before bringing it back to his lap.

“I didn’t expect that.” Adrian says in a dead monotone.

“That’s.. odd. Seems when you lie you get a heart pain. And hot damn does it feel weird.”

“Does it anyone here want to end this yet, or shall we continue?” Clara looks around the table.

“I’ve said what I needed to.” Adrian shrugs.

“Victoria seems to still want information from me.” Cathun places her head on the table.

“I do, but anything I want to ask of you can wait until after the game...” Victoria pauses, “if we both survive, that is.”

“Excuse me Cathun, truth or dare?” Clara looks at her.

“Truth, I guess.”

“In full detail, explain to me how much and what you know of the other homeowners and SNARE.”

“I know just as much as any of you do, I never heard of SNARE before, and as far as I was aware the previous home owners either died or simply didn’t own the house anymore.”

Adrian looks at the group, “Hey guys, just a general survey, do you believe in ghosts.”

Victoria laughs, “After tonight I think I’d believe in most anything.”

Opek responds with a quiet, “Yeah…”

Clara responds, “I mean, in about an hour I’ll bet there will be categorical proof of them, so yeah.”

Percy sighs, “You’d be hard pressed to find something I don’t believe in right now, besides a merciful god.”

“I guess its my turn,” Cathun sighs and sits up, “Opek, you’ve not been called on yet, truth or dare?”

Opek perks up, “Oh! Um... I’ll go dare.”

She looks around the table and sighs, “Fine. If we make it long enough, I dare you to call on Victoria on your next turn.”

Victoria raises an eyebrow and shrugs. Opek nods, “I... I can do that. Why Victoria if I may ask?”

“I’ll explain if it ever becomes relevant. I’m going to assume it won’t however.”

Percy looks around the table, “Does anyone here need to choose dare? If so let me know. I’ll just dare you to clap your hands three times.” After being met with silence he continues, “Alright, Cathun, truth or dare.”

“I’ll take a truth I guess.”

“Tell me, why did you tell Opek to call on Victoria next turn.”

“I wish I was this popular on any other day.” Victoria mutters.

“You say that now but people are exhausting.” Percy mumbles back.

“I know Victoria’s dare. It’s not exactly one people would be happy with. Thought if people thought that I had some sort of plan involving her they’d hesitate to call on her. But I guess that plan’s out of the window.” Cathun leans back in her chair.

“Ah, so you were hoping to prevent her from getting called on?” Clara asks, “How bad is it, on a scale from one to ten? I can’t force you to answer this, but I want to know how screwed we are if possible.”

“I can answer that,” Victoria speaks up, “Cathum’s right, it’s not something people would be happy with. But it wouldn’t doom us. Whether you think it’s a better gamble to ignore what Cathun and I tell you, and call on me instead of someone else, that is your decision.”

“Well, not like I can really call on you yet, so everything is fine for now.”

Adrian leans forward, “Would any of these really ‘doom’ us? What would that even mean...?”

“All I know is what I have and what Cathun has. I know those wouldn’t cost more than what we can pay. But I don’t know what any of you have, so that’s my guess.” She pauses, “Hey Opek, truth or dare?”

“I’ll go for truth this time.”

“How do you feel about everyone in this room? As specific or as generally as you want to get.”

“Everyone... Well to start off, I really don’t trust Percy very much right now. Cathun is a close second, but I’ve lived with her so I sort of understand her tendencies, I... feel sad seeing Ante, and I really want to help him. Clara... I don’t really have many feelings towards you. Adrian I feel is hiding something, but again I can’t hate him. And Victoria, I feel like I can trust you.”

Ante begins his turn, “Clara, truth or dare?”

“Lets go dare, I’m no coward.”

“I dare you to...bonk your least favorite person here on the head.”

“Oh that’s easy.” Clara gets up and slams her closed fist on Percy’s head, then sitting back down.

Opek breathes, “According to the dare Cathun asked of me... I’m to ask you this turn Victoria. Truth or dare?”

“I’ll pick truth, ask away.”

“What do you do for a living?” 

“Oh, every Friday and Saturday I co-host a podcast. Been making a living mostly off of that for the past... five years or so?”

“That sounds interesting! What kind of podcast is it?”

“We do reviews and news on whatever film and TV shows are coming out. Last week we reviewed a horror/thriller film.”

Clara perks up, “Oooo, can I get the name of it? I’ll leave a review if I make it out.”

“It’s called The Long Take.”

“Nice, I’ll keep a note of it.”

The lady speaks, “One lie has been told. All participants have received one dare.”

Adrian pauses to think, “Clara, truth or dare?”

“Hmmm. Dare, I don’t think you’re going to make me kill anyone yet.”

Adrian glances toward the paper he has in his hand, “Ha……. Either way, I dare you to stand on the table until my next turn.”

“Well that’s a thing,” Clara climbs onto the table, making sure not to touch the gun that lay there, and waits.

“I couldn’t come up with anything better, sorry.”

“Better than making me kill someone, so I can’t complain.” She looks down at Victoria, “Hey Victoria, truth or dare?”

“I’ve only got one dare left until…” Victoria leans back in her chair, “So I’d rather not immediately leave us open to that option, to be honest. I’m going to pick truth.”

“If you could bring someone dead back, who would you grab and why? I won’t think of you anything if you lie here.”

Victoria nearly loses her footing and lets the chair go back to four legs, looking serious, “I-I mean, assuming that they’re not coming back as zombies or anything bad, yeah? I’d feel bad if we brought anyone back just to be back in this house... if that were the case, I wouldn’t pick anyone. But otherwise... Spencer, I guess. He was gone so fast I wish I had time to know him.”

“Yeah, can’t blame you there. Sorry if the question made you uncomfortable.”

Victoria shrugs, “‘s alright. We can’t change the past, but there always is that ‘what if’, huh.”

“I guess its my turn now,” Cathun sits up and turns to Adrian, “Since I started this, I guess I can only continue to ask the same question. Adrian, truth or dare?”

“Truth.”

“Who did you vote for in the first trial? The one that killed Spencer, I was told there was a vote.”

Adrian sits in silence and thinks for a few seconds, “That was a while ago... I voted for... you, Cathun.”

Clara turns to look at Cathun, “So this is kind of self-serving for me to say this, but I don’t think we can judge anyone for who they voted for in the first round. We didn’t know.”

Cathun shrugs, “I wasn’t in the room with you, I wouldn’t have known if you knew it was a death trap or the restrictions and conditions given. I just wanted to know...”

“Okay, guess it’s my turn.” Percy faces Ante, seeing as much of him as he could through Clara blocking his line of sight, “Ante I know you’ll pick truth, truth or dare?”

Ante takes a long inhale, “Truth.”

“Are you even thinking of a plan to try and save everyone or are you just waiting and hoping I’ll be the one to bite the bullet?”

“Well, you’re a jerk.” Clara mumbles, although very audibly.

“What can I say, I hold a grudge.” Percy shrugs.

“I don’t have a plan, and its not like I want anyone to die! But if we want this gem to work somebody else is going to have to die.” Ante crosses his arms and mumbles under his breath, “I’m not seeing you coming up with some brilliant plan either.”

Adrian also mumbles, “And even if he did have a plan there’s no guarantee it’ll work out.” He then shoots a glare at Percy

Victoria takes her turn, “Truth or dare, Opek?”

“Um... well, I guess I’ll just alternate between truth and dare, so dare this time.”

Victoria tries to hide her smile, although mostly failing, “Your turn to run around the table, acting like a bird.”

Opek gets up, a mischievous grin on her face. She runs around the table, flapping her arms wildly shouting “CAW CAW CAW CAW” spraying some of the excess oil on the people sitting down.

“H-Hey! Well, that’s fine, not like I was planning on ever wearing this coat again.” Ante sighs.

“Where’d you even rent all this stuff Cathun?” Adrian laughs.

“I have connections, and it was a lucky night, I had some extra earnings left that I could use to rent an outfit or two.” Cathun chuckles. 

Clara tries not to laugh, “I’d ask if anyone wanted to take this seriously but at this point I’m just enjoying myself.”

Victoria smiles, “If I’ve learned anything in life so far, it’s to take what good moments you can get. But I can get serious again if you want.”

Opek begins to sit down, “I don’t think I’ve asked a serious question of anyone here, hah!”

“Anyways” Ante begins, “I’ll lay off Percy for now...Adrian. Truth or dare?”

“Dare.”

“Oh! U-um…” Ante pauses for a moment, “...Okay, sure…” He says to himself, “I-I dare you to switch papers with me!”

“Oh... Well.” Adrian stands up, not looking happy, and hands his paper to him, “Here you go.”

Ante mouths “I’m sorry” to Adrian.

Adrian sits down, unfolds his new paper, looks confused and distressed and then folds it back to what it once was.

Opek takes a deep breath and turns to Adrian, “Adrian, I know this is risky but...truth or dare?”

“Not really... risky if my only other choice would be my third dare… truth.”

“Why did you ask Stu to grab your bag from the first floor in the previous challenge? I never understood why you would do that.”

“Oh, uh. Where did you think I got my new outfit from? I brought along the outfit Cathun got for me minus the overcoat to change into... Now that I think about it I’m not sure why. The party shouldn’t have been that long... But I usually bring along a second outfit whenever I dress up.”

“It did work out, at least.” Victoria says.

“I got real lucky, yeah.”

The lady speaks, “Two lies have been told. Adrian and Opek have received two dares. Clara, Cathun, Percy, Victoria, and Ante have each received one dare.”

Adrian winces and looks at Percy, “Percy, that fucking sucks.” He turns and looks at Victoria to begin his turn, Clara jumps down from the table and sits back down, “Victoria, truth or dare?”

“I’ve got no choice, what’s the dare?”

“I dare... hey this is like the fourth one I’ve given... I dare you to carry Percy around this table once.”

She audibly groans and gets up begrudgingly. “I doubt I can even do it, but c’mere.”

Victoria stands next to Percy, clearly in thought about something, then pulls his arm over her shoulder and puts him in a fireman’s carry. The lap around the table was not a fast one.

“Before I do anything,” begins Clara, “Does anyone want to end this? I’m willing to use my paper, but only on the good conscience that the other person is willing to accept.”

“I... would rather not use it if it’s an option.” Opek pulls her hands closer to herself. Adrian’s eyes widen, surprised.

“That’s completely fine. I just wanted to know if anyone wanted to be willing to do it as opposed to being forced to do it.”

“I know we’re delaying the inevitable at this point, but I just don’t know who’s going to…” Victoria’s voice exhausted.

“Hey, I figured I’d ask and see. I just think my paper is one of the best case scenarios of someone dying.”

“Well, you sound confident in that. If that’s what you think is best, I’ll trust you.”

“You want to do it?”

“I want to hear everyone else’s thoughts first. We either do this or we keep going around the table until someone has to do something.”

“I can’t force you to do it, nor do I want it to hang on your mind too much.” 

“What happens happens.” Cathun sighs, resting her head on the table, “That shower didn’t help me stay awake as much as I thought.”

“You could try standing and stretching.” Shrugs Adrian.

“I can smack you if you’re about to fall asleep.” Clara smiles at Cathun and turns to Victoria, “Hey Victoria, want to swap cards and then use your new one on my next round?”

“What’s your plan with that?”

“Wait, so if Victoria asks you, you plan on saying dare, right?” Adrian pauses, “Didn’t you say you weren’t going to manipulate us anymore?”

“Yeah, I know, I don’t like it either.” Clara sighs, “I just know that at this point I’ll be able to live with myself. I don’t like it, but I know I’ll be able to protect all 99% of you all. Well, technically 6/7ths, but that’s all we can manage. I don’t like it, I don’t want it, but I know that it’s an option. I won’t, or can’t, make you go through with it, without permission.”

Adrian sighs, “Admittedly I think I appreciate you playing the devil here... Some of these papers would hurt quite bad. You’re not sacrificing yourself, are you?”

“Oh god no, I still intend to make it through as long as I can. I just want to make this better for everyone, and if that means playing the devil, I will.”

“Hah, good. Oh, by the way I think it’s heart attacks or something. Err, the Game Master’s power. After you lie and she points it out something hurt in my chest.”

“Huh, interesting. I would test that, but I don’t like pain. Controversial opinion, I know.”

“No need, you could just ask Percy since he also lied. Hey, do you think this Host is some kind of ghost? They seem to be the kind of monster to- sorry I’m getting distracted.”

“If you’re curious, my plan involves trading papers with you Victoria, then on your turn, you’ll use your new dare/my old dare on me. This means that no one else has to murder someone, you get to use a death dare almost certainly better than yours, and this game will be over.”

“But whatever your dare is, I’ll be the one who has to do it, right? How do I know you’re not getting me to accept it and end up getting a gun to my head?”

“No, you have to give the dare to someone else, who has to use it. I wouldn’t ask you to do something that will get you harmed. Unless you, Miss Cathun, want to switch.”

Victoria winces, “Okay, I won’t know if it’s the best plan we have until we at least try to swap, and even then I don’t have to use it... I’ll work with you.”

“Well then Victoria, truth or dare?”

“Dare.”

The lady finally opens her eyes, “Victoria has chosen her third dare, Clara, please read your dare.”

“Oh, crap.” Victoria winces and rubs her chest, then glances around the room, making eye-contact with both Adrian and Percy.

Clara opens her note nervously, “Here’s my dare. ‘Kill who you think is the biggest threat to the group’s teamwork.’”

Saying nothing she leans over the table and grabs the gun, takes a deep breath and aims to her right, Percy.

“If you have any last words, go ahead. You can hate me if you want. I’m sorry to have to do this, but I’ll make it quick.”

“Well, if anyone is going to kill me, at least its you. Cathun, Ante? I’ll be sure to reserve your spot in hell.”

Victoria looks at the lady, “Does everyone else have to remain here for this?”

Eyes closed once more she responds, “The dare must be completed before the game can be finished. No one can leave the room if the game isn’t finished.”

Victoria pauses for a few seconds, Opek turns away during this time. Victoria aims where she knows should be lethal, and fires. The sound of the gunshot fills the room, the thud of the body hitting the floor echoing and filling the room with silence.

Clara breaks the silence, “I’m sorry Victoria.”

Victoria offers an obviously forced smile and looks away, “He still didn’t deserve it, but I can’t just stand around and let other people do the work.” 

“Here is your promised reward.” The lady crawls under the table, a few moments pass and a gem is thrown out from under the table towards Clara, the gem glowing, much like the last one.

Opek removes the necklace, handing it to Clara, in which Clara places the gem and hands back to Opek.

Victoria places the now empty gun on the table, hesitantly she approaches Percy’s body and begins to search it, eventually she finds the glowing gem and hands it to Opek.

Cathun wipes her eyes and opens the folded piece of paper she held, tearing it in two and tossing it onto the ground, “I don’t need this anymore.”

The paper read, “Shoot me”.

“I want to go home.” Cathun says quietly as she turns to Clara, “Can I have the notebook back? Just let me read it, it’s all I’m good for.”

“Yeah, yeah. God this sucks.” Clara hands the book back to Cathun.

“H-hey Cathun, I know we’re in the middle of prohibition and all, but do you have anything to drink in this fucking house?” Victoria asks, pressing her hand to her eyes.

“Hazel and Stu bought some for the party, I assume there’s some still left over, you’ll be able to take some home after this, that I can promise you.” Cathun gives a weak yet genuine smile and begins to flip through the notebook, stopping on one page, “the next homeowner once used to run a bar. Although he tends to be a hired chef now.”

[Chapter 5 End]

[6 Alive]

\--------------------

Post death thoughts on the project from Percy's player, Parzivil:

I really liked ONE, I was surprised and impressed with the games and how they worked, like the interactivity us players had with the story. I was expecting more of a VN style story telling but got more a DnD style interactive narrative


	7. Chapter 6: Alcohol Poisoning

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A victory feast and a celebratory drink, a return to the basement.

[January 17, 1920(?)] [First Floor - Conference Hall]

Opek shoots a glance towards Victoria, “Are you... going to be alright, Victoria?”

“I’d like to say yes. But if I get out of here, I don’t-...” she stops and shakes her head, “No, sorry. I’m getting ahead of myself. Let’s just focus on one thing at a time. I’ll be okay.”

Cathun begins walking towards the exit, “If they’re a chef, they’re likely back in the kitchen and dining hall again.”

“Can you lead the way Cathun?” a shaking Opek asks, only being given the response of a nod. Opek attempts to hold Victoria’s hand, to which she offers her hand.

Adrian places a hand on Victoria’s shoulder as the group began to head towards the dining hall. A heavy silence filled the trip.

As the group arrived in the dining hall, on the table lay a new feast, different from that of the night’s start, due to being much smaller in size. At the table’s end sat a man, sitting quietly. The man placed a note on the table and left the room, not a word said.

Slowly and carefully, Victoria walks over to the note and picks it up.

**[A feast to celebrate your achievement of surviving this long. But food doesn't seem like all that great a reward by itself. Which is why this also comes along with a gem, and as per custom. You'll be going into another vote. Three people shall be voted in to go into one of the basement rooms, here they shall be given some alcoholic drinks, to douse their worries away, they may even be able to bring any back with them. The next homeowner shall be down there with the next gem.]**

Stu moves a few plates on the table and speaks, “As usual, you have five minutes to discuss.”

Victoria sighs and walks to Stu, writing on a paper, “Sounds like we’re coming to another vote already. Eat fast if you’re hungry; we don’t have much time.” She folds her paper, “And... vote me in, for the next game.”

Adrian sits at the table, “I uh. Don’t drink…… Also is it just the alcohol or?” Adrian looks around the room.

“We get the gem as well” Cathun shrugs.

“No, yeah, but Victoria, are you offering because of the alcohol or some other reason?”

Victoria glances at the time on the watch, “...I guess I can say it’s a mix of reasons.”

“Well, if you’re that confi... interested, then sure. I’ll vote you in.” Adrian walks over and grabs a slip of paper, turning to Victoria, “But, just to make sure, are you certain you’re okay to do this? It’s just another death trap, not super enjoyable.” 

“If I felt like I had the choice, then I wouldn’t have offered. But I can’t just sit here and watch other people die without offering my life too. I haven’t been put in yet, so it’s only fair.” She takes a sip of water, smiling wryly, :Besides, this is the one thing I think I’m actually sort of good at, for what that’s worth.”

“Another vote though.” Clara talks to herself, “Don’t you think that’s a bit too quick?"

“There’s only six of us.” Cathun drinks water, “I know Ante isn’t legally allowed to drink. So that lowers our options. If we have to put in three people, then I’m willing to put my name in.”

“Yeah, I’m not really old enough to...drink. I mean, that didn’t stop me back in highschool, but I’d like to think I’m a better person since then.”

“I think it’s just the four of us that can…” Adrian turns to Clara, “Clara, what’s your opinion on alcohol?”

Clara shrugs, “I’ll throw my name in the hat, why not. I don’t drink often, but I might as well. Can’t have you show me up Victoria.”

“We have our three choices then.” Cathun looks over at Adrian, “Do you want your name in the hat as well?”

“I-I’m really bad with alcohol and I never developed a taste so I’d rather skip this one… Ugh, that sounded really self centered...”

“I think you’ve earned a pass for that oil thing, don’t worry about it.” Victoria smiles at him.

“Hey Stu,” Clara looks at the butler sitting at the table, “do we even need to vote if we already have three volunteers?”

“If the votes are all publicly announced and we’re equal with the number of participants necessary, then I guess there would be no reason to shuffle the names in the hat. But should even one vote go in without publicly revealing who they chose, we must randomly select them, as anybody could be pulled.”

“Bah, that’s just dumb. If we have an exact amount of people volunteering to die, there’s no point to go through the whole ritual.”

“Right,” Ante enters the conversation, “unless there’s some sort of reason you always want to do these votes.”

“The reason for the votes is so nobody is killed unfairly. At least one person wants them out. If it’s unanimous, there’s no reason for a vote. It’s simply to keep the voting system balanced and fair.”

“Okay, but literally last game we all ganged up on one person and that felt pretty unfair.” Adrian crosses his arms.

“That was not a game with a vote. I had no role in that. But much like the vote, death ultimately came upon a person who had at least one person wishing for them to die.”

“Eh, let’s get this over with” Clara grabs a paper, writes her name and shows it to everyone then turns to Cathun, “Hey, Cathun, if you’re going in, want to leave the notebook out here to be safe?”

“If I die in there I trust you and Victoria to pick up the notebook.” Cathun gives a weak smile

“I don’t want to be shady about this, or anything.” Ante takes a slip, writes ‘Clara, the Heiress’ and shows it to everyone, “Sorry, but you quite literally asked for this.” 

“Hey, I’m not upset. Whatever happens happens, and at least I’m not likely to drown.” 

Opek turns to Victoria. “Are you sure you’re alright with me voting for you?”

“I’d rather it be me than someone who can’t or doesn’t like drinking. Besides, I’ve already got two votes. It’s practically guaranteed. Go for it.”

Opek walks up, writes Victoria on the paper and shows it to everyone. Cathun writes her own name and shows the group. 

“No names need to be pulled, Victoria, SIr Cathun and Clara, please step into the hall, from there the chef should guide you to the basement.” Stu places his hat back on after he finishes his statement.

“Ready to go?” Victoria looks at the other two girls. 

“Good luck out there” Ante waves, a weak smile on his face.

“Good luck everyone.” Opek waves as well, turning to the dining table.

“Don’t die, save two plates!” Clara says jokingly, as she begins to follow the other two out of the room.

Once the group leaves, Opek turns to the table, “So...Does anyone want to eat something?”

“I’m surprised you can muster an appetite over that oil smell.” Adrian turns, looking around at a few of the oil trails still on the hallway floor.

“Once you’ve worked in mechanics long enough you get numb to the smell of oil.”

“Oh, I completely forgot you were a mechanic.”

“I don’t look the part, I know.”

[Basement Floor]

The three girls are led to the basement through the entrance they had gone through for the first voting challenge, the stench of death lingering in the room. As the girls enter the room a locking noise is heard behind them. 

Cathun sighs and pinches the bridge of her nose, a small amount of blood escaping her finger tips, “I’ll just assume the chef will unlock the door after the challenge, let’s continue.” She looks around the room, “We had a basement? Where has this been?”

Victoria stops, “This...Clara, isn’t this where we had the first vote? Where Spencer…”

“Yeah… that’s honestly not particularly great.” Clara responded, uneasy.

In the middle of the room was a desk. On the desk was a bottle of alcohol and three shot glasses alongside a note.

“How much you want to bet the alcohol is poisoned? Well, beyond normal.” Clara chuckles.

Victoria walks over to the table, “Want me to do the honors?”

“Yeah, sure.”

**[Welcome. You three were likely voted into this room as you were well liked and wanted to celebrate. Well, you get to do so. Each of you take a shot and then this game’s description will continue.”]**

The rest of the note was empty, the two sentences being all that was shown.

Victoria puts down the note and speaks as she begins to pour the shot glasses, “I don’t know about you but everything about this screams ‘bad idea’ more than just drinking normally does.” 

“As opposed to any of the good ideas we’ve had?” Clara teases.

Victoria gives a short laugh. “Yeah, good point.”

Cathun reaches for her shot, “There hasn’t been a dangerous situation we haven’t been able to get out of.” She raises her glass and drinks.

“...well, cheers.” Victoria raises her glass and takes the shot.

“Well, if I have to die, at least I do it drunk. Cheers!” Clara drinks her shot. 

As the glasses emptied one of the desk drawers opened. Inside lay a single pen, a notebook, and a note. 

“Huh?” Victoria looks at the note, unamused she reads it aloud.

**[Hope you enjoyed the drink. If it had a weird flavour about it, it was probably the poison. But worry not, you’ll get an antidote, and some celebratory drinks afterwards. All that’s needed is to make a choice.**

**Write a name of one person who lays upstairs, killing them, or have one person drink the remaining bottle of poison on the counter, the amount of poison in the bottle can kill someone three times over, so do not split it.**

**Once one person’s fate is sealed, your antidote shall be given. The amount of poison in the shot glass should kill after one hour has passed, so make your decision before your time runs out.]**

Victoria winces, “Why didn’t I see this coming?”

“Of course the time I get voted this happens, this sucks.” Clara pouts, “Who is safe? Who can’t we kill?”

“It seems that everyone is on the table…” Cathun pauses, “It’s one of us or one of them.”

“Admittedly, that’s subjective. But we’ve got a while to kill,” Victoria pauses at her choice of words, “We’ve got a little while to decide. Let’s think about everyone right now.”

Cathun looks at the pen and notebook in the drawer, “We only have one pen, does that mean one of us can write in a name without the consent of the others?” She shivers and walks away from the desk.

“Sure, guess you could just grab the pen right now if you wanted. But I don’t think it’s smart.” Victoria sighs, “I think it would help if we could narrow down our choices a bit …If you had to pick someone out there and someone in here, who is it?”

Hesitant, Clara responds, “...Opek, I can’t pick someone in here, it isn’t fair.”

“As long as you’re being honest. You can say someone in here if you want to.” Victoria pauses, “I’m… I’m not sure I can rule myself out here, exactly. I want to live, but my life isn’t worth any more than anyone else’s.”

”Goes two ways.” Clara starts, “Your life isn’t worth more, but your life isn’t worth less. It’s your choice, but you have people who care for you.”

“Well, I appreciate it.” Victoria looks at Cathun, “And you?”

“I can’t make a decision like that, it’s a more direct death sentence than anything I’ve done so far.” Cathun looks at the note, “Maybe leave it up to fate? They said the notebook is what kills people. So maybe if we wrote on the back of the note and tore some slips, we could pull one out of the shot glass.”

“Would you feel better leaving it up to fate? I don’t think I would.” Clara looks at Cathun.

Victoria pauses then speaks, “So if we decide on someone out there,... do we tell the other two what happened, after we come back?”

“I would have to. I don’t want to manipulate or lie to people anymore.”

“Yeah, I understand.”

“I also... this is really selfish but I don’t want to leave it up to fate. If I need to, I’ll play the villain, draw people off of you two so you don’t need to be blamed, but I would rather us do the thing that makes the most logical sense rather than the one that makes us feel better.”

“No, I’ll take some of the blame too. If you do this, it just makes you a target for later, and I’m not having you feel responsible for any more deaths.” Victoria looks back at the paper. “I feel selfish even thinking about this. None of them out there deserve this.” Victoria places her hand on the desk, next to the bottle.

“None of us in here deserve it either.” Clara gently pushes Victoria’s hand away from the bottle.

Victoria sighs and moves away from the table, “If we’re not leaving this up to fate, then we have to go through the three of them one at a time and think about it. I’ll start with Ante. The kid’s clever- I mean, he knew chess pretty well even though our side lost. He came back out of the battleship thing, too. Someone just needs to try and... and reach him, I guess. I’m sure he’s still in shock but we need to snap him out of it if he’s going to make it.”

“Opek is next.” Cathun speaks up, “She’s kind hearted, but her not being outspoken hasn’t allowed her to prove her worth, especially given that she’s never been voted into a challenge, and believe me, I’ve tried. With only one final gem after our current one, I think she won’t have any chance to prove how she can contribute to our escape. But I feel bad saying she’s our best bet...” Cathun grabs her arm, a pensive look crossing her face.

“I’m worried that even if we don’t kill Opek now, she’ll still end up dying later.” Clara interjects, “This is a concern for all of them, but I’m especially worried about her. I also want people who are willing to make decisions as we near the end.”

“Adrian confidently left the tube and put Opek in during the oil fiasco. I think Adrian is very capable of making decisions on his own.”

“Yeah, I suppose we can’t write down Percy again, can we?” Clara gives a weak laugh.

Victoria winces, her hand instinctively hovering to her chest before she quickly lowered it.

“And I take it we can’t write down Stu’s name either.” Clara looks at the notebook and picks it up, flipping through it, seeing the pages are mostly empty.

“If you had me the pen, I can try it.” Victoria walks over to the desk.

“If it doesn’t work, then what?”

“Then we make our decision based on what we talked about before.”

“Alright, why not.”

“Sorry, man. Not to disturb the dead or anything, but...” Victoria sits at the chair by the desk and writes Percy’s name in a section of the notebook, and after a few seconds of silence, Victoria sighed, “...Yeah, little too much to hope for. Okay.”

“Well, what now? You want me to write the next name?”

Victoria turns around in the chair and looks at the other two girls, “I’m guessing both of you are decided- or mostly decided- on one person?”

“Do you have any positions on this?”

“I’m trying to think of what both of them have done, and it hasn’t amounted to much. For what it’s worth, I think I’d rather have someone who’s actively nice to everyone than someone who is willing to throw another person under the bus for them. I’ll agree with you and say that one of them is definitely more willing to make decisions than the other... but I worry that it might come back to bite someone else, if the decision is like what Adrian did to Opek with the oil challenge...”

“Which is more important? Kindness or decision making?”

“We only have one gem left after this.” Cathun says with a heavy sigh, “Decision making may not be all that useful anymore. Assuming we have another vote. Adrian may make a decision the rest of us may not agree with.”

“Yeah. Alright. Anyone want to do the honors?” Clara gestures at the notebook, the two girls look away, “Hey Victoria, can I borrow the pen?”

“I-... are you sure?” Victoria looks at Clara, confused and holds the pen closer to her.

“Hey, I made you kill someone last time, at least let me do it this time.”

“I don’t know about that. I can- I can take it again. Or we can ask Cathun.” Victoria turns around in the chair to see the girl playing with her necklace.

“Hey Cathun” Clara places a hand on the girl’s shoulder, grabbing her attention, “want to live with the emotional guilt of murdering someone?”

Cathun brushes Clara’s hand off her shoulder, “I already have the guilt of inviting you all here, which you remind me of frequently. I’d rather not contribute more to the deaths of my friends than I already have.”

“I’ll do it then.” Victoria turns back to the notebook, pen in hand, “We’ll just get it over with, we go back, and I tell them everything ...I just hope it’s painless for Adrian...” she then mutters under her breath, “but I have my doubts given everything so far...”

“Alright. Thank you Victoria.” Clara places her hand on Victoria’s shoulder, a weak smile on her face.

“I’m so sorry, Adrian.” Victoria writes “Adrian Silke” in the notebook and she puts down the pen.

[Second Floor: Dining Hall]

Opek looks around the silent room, she glances at the half eaten plates, “So... you guys want to have a food fight?”

Ante sighs, “Do we really want to ruin our clothes anymore? Then they have been?”

Adrian, holding his chest begins to have a coughing fit. He begins to cough up blood, through desperate gasps for air and coughs Adrian managed to speak the words, “So soon?! Dammit... Sorry…” Adrian collapses on the table.

“A-Adrian?!” Ante quickly rushes to Adrian’s side.

Opek runs to his side, the gem in her necklace without a glow slowly gaining the gentle glow of the others as she does so, “W-What;s wrong?”

“Adrian what’s wrong?!”

“A-Adrian?!”

“Hey? Adrian? Answer us!”

“Adrian please say something!” Opek tries feeling for a pulse, but there was nothing there.

“Opek, what- I thought it was gonna be one of them! What’s happening?”

“I don’t know! It wasn’t the food, Adrian didn’t eat anything!” Opek paused, finally, she stopped looking for a pulse, “I... oh god no... Adrian’s dead.”

“N-No...no way...”

[Basement]

A new cabinet opened, inside lay a gem, not glowing, a note and three bottles of alcohol.

Victoria reads the note.

**[Sorry for your loss, whoever you may have chosen. May their death have been a swift and painless one. Here in the cabinet lay your antidotes, normal alcohol, take them, you’ve earned it. Only a shot is necessary to remove the poison’s effects, although you may drink as much as you like.]**

Victoria looks almost disgusted by the antidotes given to them but takes a bottle in one hand and the gem in the other. “...Alright. I don’t know how we’re going to even begin to explain this, but...”

Cathun grabs a bottle, “We should probably take a shot or two first, we don’t want to be done in by the poison, or at the very least, I don’t want you to be.”

“I feel like it wouldn’t be undeserved, but me dying after that would just be pointless, wouldn’t it,” Victoria opens the top of her bottle and drinks it for a few moments, “...damn it.”

Cathun follows in Victoria’s actions. “This may not be healthy but... I just want to survive and go home…”

Clara takes her shot, leaves the bottle on the table and heads towards the exit, which unlocked, the chef opening the door.

Victoria takes another shot from the bottle and pockets the gem and speaks with a heavy sigh, “I’ll try to explain this to them somehow. God, they must be freaking out right now. Let’s just go. I don’t want to run out of time after everything...”

[Second Floor: Dining Hall]

“How are we going to explain this to the others? How did... How did Adrian even die anyway...?” Opek turns to Stu, “Stu do you… do you know anything on Adrian’s cause of death?”

“Why...why...?” Ante looks over Adrian’s body, stopping while looking at his hands, “He- he was grabbing his chest. Was it some sort of heart failure?”

“A heart attack maybe?”

“And they still haven’t come back, what the hell is going on down there?!”

“This is bad... really bad... Ante, what if they think one of us killed him?”

“They...they wouldn’t think that right?... Would they?”

“Ante, there’s alcohol down there. If they come back drunk, who knows what they’re going to think?”

“S-Shit! What is going on?! Did...this have anything to do with the votes? Hell if I know! God...dammit!”

“But Adrian wasn’t voted for! Maybe it was the oil? I... I just don’t know.”

“No...maybe this was a punishment for voting for someone? Or something? Fucking...dammit!” Ante slams his fist onto the dinner table.

Opek starts tearing up slightly, “W-What are we going to do...?”

“What if this was unrelated? What if one of them are still gonna die?” Ante mumbles, “Stu what the hell is happening?!”

“They said that the gem is down there... but that would mean the death down there is the only one that counts...”

“”Anything please! Just tell me anything!” Ante starts tearing up as well.

“Does that mean that Adrian’s death is... p-pointless?” Opek collapses onto the floor as she breaks down crying.

“O-Opek!” Ante runs to console her.

“I thought we were supposed to not have a death since we weren’t voted in... but... what are we going to do?!” How are we going to explain this?! I just... I don’t know…”

Victoria and Cathun, bottles in hand, stumble into the room followed by Clara walking behind them, watching their steps, gaining the attention of Opek and Ante as the chef closes the door behind them.

Not leaving Opek’s side, Ante calls to the girls, “Victoria! Cathun! Clara! What on earth happened?”

Victoria swears and, as quickly as she’s able, stumbles to the table. “O-Oh, god.”

Sobbing on the floor, Opek turns to the girls, “H-He’s dead... Adrian is dead…”

Clara walks over to Opek and places a hand on her shoulder, “Yeah... yeah.”

“We... god, where do I even start...” Victoria looks from Adrian’s body to Ante and Opek. “We know.”

“Uh. Yeah. We got the gem” Cathun points at Adrian, “That may or may not be related.”

Ante looks at her, unnamused, “Uh? Ya think?!”

Opek, hands shaking, takes the gem from Victoria and places it on the ground. Carefully, she removes the necklace, still visibly upset, with a few fumbles, she fits the gem into the slot and slowly puts the necklace back around her neck.

Clara looks at Opek, “I’m so sorry.”

“...I’m going to tell you what happened while we were gone. Okay?” Victoria sighs.

“...Fuckin...alright, sure but...god...” Ante trails off.

Opek nods and wipes tears from her eyes, yet says nothing.

Cathun tries to lean on Clara, “I think I need to sit for a bit.”

“Yeah, yeah. Let’s just explain this.” Clara leads Cathun to a chair, “Let’s just sit down.”

Once everyone sits down, Victoria begins to speak, “We went to the basement, where Spencer was-” she stops and starts again “-we got locked in a room, with a note that told us to drink a shot each. Once we followed the instructions, it told us that we’d been poisoned. We had, at most, an hour to follow the rest of the instructions, or the three of us would die.” Victoria trips over her words.

“And let me guess. One of the things you had to do was pick one of us up here to die.” Ante asks, audibly tired.

“Either that, or someone down there.” Clara responds.

“I-” Victoria winces, glances at Clara, then nods. “Yeah. The note told us that one of us could drink the rest of the poison and die, or we would have to pick someone upstairs to...”

“It was my call.” Clara interrupts.

“No, it was not. I wrote the name.”

“Victoria, I decided it. You may have written it down, but it wasn’t your call.”

“It is not your fault that Adrian...” Victoria’s grip on the bottleneck tightens. “I took the pen. I could have written any name- fuck, I should’ve just taken the poison- but I wrote Adrian’s. I didn’t want to write anyone’s but I did it.” She goes quiet, then, “...If any of you hate me, that’s okay. As long as I can get the rest of us out of here, somehow, then that’s all I want. Even if I have to throw myself on a grenade next time to do it.”

“Victoria, I say this with the absolute kindest of intentions, but please shut the hell up.”

“Victoria, it’s not your fault.” Ante’s expression changes to a more concerned one, “You...you did what you had to do. To survive. We can’t blame you for that Plus...” Ante glances at the bottle in Victoria’s hand, “You’re drunk. You need to just take a second, and sort things out. Please.”

Victoria laughs once, quiets again after. “...are you two going to be okay to carry on?”

“I’m fine...I’m fine. Opek, though...” Ante glances at the girl with dried tear marks on her face, “She’s...a little worse for wear. She started breaking down crying so...let’s just take a second. But let’s also maybe get out of this room?”

Victoria sighs, placing the bottle on the table and gesturing to Opek for a hug, “Yeah, let’s just get out of here.”

Opek accepts the hug, “I... I’m sorry for breaking down like that. It’s just… I know this is obvious, but it’s different seeing someone die in front of you and feeling like you could have done something more than just hearing that they died.”

“What’s next Cathun.” Clara looks over at Cathun, who had her head resting on the table.

Cathun slides the notebook across the table to Clara, “I’m not going to be able to read this.”

Clara flips through the notebook, seeing most pages were empty, occasionally she passed a page with words on them, although they had mostly been read. Eventually, near the end of the notebook, Clara finds a new page.

**[The final homeowner has the final gem. They’re generally proud of their math and knows how to take a chance, often placing their life as a bet in all-or-nothing games. They have prepared your final game in the Library on the first floor. Good luck.]**

“Well guys! Good news! Our next challenge is math. It’s entirely non-luck based. Hopefully.”

“The library? I know where that is.” The drunken Cathun lifts her head and points at a seemingly random direction.

Victoria looks where the drunk girl points and back at Clara,”...did the book give us directions or are we relying on Cathun here?”

“First floor, but otherwise, no.”

“Good enough for me.”

As the group begins to head to the first floor, Opek stops and looks back, “Umm I think someone should watch Cathun in case she falls.”

“I’ll be fine.” Cathun says, walking past Opek and almost tripping over herself.

Opek turns to Ante, “Do you think you can keep Cathun um.. Upright until we get there?”

Ante presses his thumb and forefinger to the bridge of his nose. “Yeah, yeah. Cathun, can you just get like...uh…” Ante grasps Cathun’s wrist, and places her arm around his shoulders. He uses his other arm to support Cathun from the back,.and pulls her closer to his side so she doesn’t fall over. “...I guess this is whats happening now. Anyways, let’s get to that library.” 

Before the group continues walking, Victoria pulls out the pocket watch and check’s the time: [4:00 AM].

[Chapter 6 End]

[5 Alive]

\--------------------

Post death thoughts on the project from Adrian's player, Schmeap:

I wanted to make Adrian's death as dramatic as possible and while it wasn't by my hand I can safely say he died exactly how he should have.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The last three chapters have been planned to come out one week from today, Saturday the 9th, and the final two chapters on important dates to the series. January 16 and 17. Look forward to the end of the first Volume, and trust me, there will be more than just the one volume.


	8. Chapter 7: Reducing Numbers

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A game in the library, one final gem.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Minor content warning for sewing needles.

After a long trek down the stairs, the group eventually finds the library, despite the drunk Cathun’s confusing attempts to help. Inside the room sat an old man, writing on papers and quickly ripping them out of their notebook and placing them in his pocket.

Opek slowly raises her hand. “Um... excuse me?”

The man looks up at the group, still writing on the paper, seemingly randomly, as if he didn’t need to focus on what was being written. “Oh, hello there. You took a little while longer than I expected, but not as long as I needed, as you can see.” As he finishes speaking, he rips off the piece of paper he was writing on and places it into his pocket.

“So… what do you want us to do?”

“Just wait there a little bit. But why don’t you introduce yourselves. Make yourselves at home. You must be tired, it just passed 4am afterall.”

Opek shoots a nervous glance at the others.

Hesitantly, Ante starts talking, “Uh...I suppose I’ll go first. My name is Ante Swift. I’m a...” He pauses for a second. “I’m a journalist.”

“Victoria Sarnoff, radio show host.” VIctoria looks around, “What are we waiting on exactly?”

“Is he setting up the challenge? Um… I’m Opek Koga. I think the paper said I was the flapper.”

“I’m working on this little game I found out about recently. There’s this big number called a Googolplex. So they made the game of Googol. Where your goal is to find the number closest to Googol without knowing what the other numbers are in the play.” The man rips another slip of paper from his notebook and places it in his pocket.

“Googol... like the internet browser?” Opek looked at the man, confused, “I didn’t know they made a game.” 

“No, not ‘Google’. Googol.” Ante comments, “It’s a number with one-hundred zeros behind it, or ten to the one-hundredth power.”

“Oh. I didn’t pay enough attention in my math classes to remember that.”

Victoria leans against a chair. “It sounds simple enough, I guess.”

“Oh joy, numbers.” Clara rolls her eyes, “Anyways, hello person probably going to murder us, I’m Clara Ruiz, pleasure to meet you.”

Ante pulls out a chair with his leg, and sits Cathun on it. “So, anyways. About this little game, what’s in it for us if we decide to play?”

“I have one of those gems you need. And by the look of that Opek girl, it seems to be your last.” He looks up, rips a slip of paper and looks back down.

Opek looks down at her necklace for a brief moment, before looking back at the man. “And by winning this game of Googol... you’ll give it to us?”

“Yes. A best three of five game of Googol. But as you all know by this point. No gift comes without a cost.”

“A vote and a life for a gem, yeah?” Victoria spoke, standing up straight, no longer leaning on a chair.

“That is the routine you’ve developed by now, it seems.”

Cathun looks up and squints, “Is that Tyna? Funnie seeing you here.”

“Y-” Victoria stops and looks between the drunken girl and the old man, disbelief on her face, “You know him? Is he...?”

“The vote is a simple one.” The old man continues speaking, seemingly ignoring the previous comments, “Only two names shall be pulled. Those two shall compete against each other. No tricks. Just a regular game.”

“Hey- wait!” Ante shouts, turning to Cathun, “You know this guy? How?”

Rather than answering, Cathun rubs her forehead and places her head on the table in front of her.

“Uh, no. You’re answering us. I couldn’t care less how drunk you are.”

Cathun sighs and speaks, still face down on the table, hands on her head, “I think I’ll vote for the Ant-Man. He seems like he’d be good at math, he can beat whoever he’s pinned up against. My head hurts too much for this…”

Stu silently nods and adds Ante’s name to the hat.

“You- wait...ME?!” Ante looks a bit shocked. “Just because I know what a googol is doesn’t mean I’ll be good at this game!”

Clara looks around, “Is it too late to vote for ourselves, if this is the last challenge?”

“W-Well, after what Cathun just said I’m not particularly keen on voting for myself...”

“As long as it’s one of you five, it doesn’t matter who you vote for.” Tyna rips another paper and places it into his pocket.

“Hey Tyna, why can’t we vote for someone else, like you or Stu?” Clara questions.

“Well, Stu is simply here working as a butler, doing his job. Killing the staff here would be rude, hiring a new butler or maid would require money most of the home owners don’t have.”

“So? Cleaning the floors after we all die isn’t exactly cheap either.”

“You want to clean and bury the bodies then, dear Clara Ruiz?” he laughs as he tears another page.

“If it means we don’t have to die, then sure, why not?”

He laughs, “You’re a funny one Clara. But I have a feeling you wouldn’t be happy staying here in the 20s. Afterall, the Great Depression hasn’t happened yet. I doubt you want to experience that.”

Victoria ignores the discussion and turns to the old man for her own question, “Tyna? Do you two know each other?”

“We talk from time to time, occasionally we discuss her earnings.”

“Well,” Ante interjects, “that is to say...when exactly were you born, if you don’t mind me asking?”

“Don’t recall the exact year. You’re making me feel old here.” Tyna chuckles.

“Ah, apologies. That does answer my question, so thank you. But, you do know where Cathun comes from, right?”

“Well of course. She’s a poor lad without a good understanding of how to handle her earnings.”

“Y-... You-...” Ante takes a long pause. “You know what, I think I’ve heard...enough. It was really on me for thinking anything would make sense in this damn house.”

“If it makes you feel any better-” Victoria speaks to Ante, “and it probably doesn’t- you’d have one hell of a best-selling article to write if you make it out.”

“Haha...if...” Ante says shakily as he gets up to vote.

Soon he’s followed by Opek, then Clara.

“Do any of you have water? My head hurts like the dickens.” Cathun groans.

“I didn’t bring anything from the previous challenge... sorry Cathun.” Opek responds as she begins to sit down.

Finally VIctoria stands up and votes.

With a shake of the hat and reads out the names, first is Tepig Cathun, second was Ante Swift.

“What a fucking JOKE!... Whatever, it’s not like I plan on dying.” Ante glares at Cathun who still has her head facedown on the table.

Cathun sighs and lifts her head from the table and begins massaging her forehead, “I’m not going in without drinking some water first.” She stands up quickly and begins to fall before catching herself, turning to Clara, “And I’ll tell you what you need to know about Tyna when I come back. Take care of the book for me.”

Twenty minutes and several glasses of water later, Tyna escorts the two into the library’s back room.

Victoria sits at a table and takes out her pocket-watch, watching the time tick closer and closer to 5am.

[Library Backroom]

As the two are led to the backroom they see one table, bookshelves lining the walls. Tyna sits on the chair facing the door, across from him sit two chairs.

Tyna begins to speak, So, from what I saw. The rules are fairly simple.” He takes out ten of the ripped slips of papers from before and places them face down, “We will flip each of these papers over one at a time. If you see a number and you think it’s the highest number, just simply grab the paper. This can be done once per round. Once the next paper is flipped over, any previously flipped papers can no longer be chosen if not already chosen. Meaning your decision has to be done then and there. The person with the number closer to the googolplex at the end of the round wins the round. We will have five rounds. The game will end once one of you has reached three victories. Are the rules clear?”

Ante takes a small breath. “Understood. Cathun?”.

Cathun continues massaging her forehead, “Yeah, I can handle that much.”

Tyna flips over the first paper.

**[1888333]**

“I’ll pass.” says Cathun.

“Next.” says Ante.

Tyna flips over the next paper.

**1000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000]**

The two stare at the number, dazed. After processing the number, Cathun places the paper in front of her.

Tyna flips the third slip.

**[57]**

“...Pass.”

Tyna flips the fourth slip.

**[628194006132958383945768450291326109918671212743626905971388612236506415082230825515846139145412717]**

“Fuck, ah...” Visibly confused, Ante takes the slip.

“First round goes to Cathun.” Tyna puts away the remaining slip of papers to his side as he grabs another group of ten onto the table.

“Fucking-! What?!” Ante yells, lifting his left leg onto his right knee and looks at the back of his leg. He sees a small sewing needle seemingly lodged into his leg, the string somehow wrapped around his leg. “What the fuck…” Ante mutters under his breath as he puts his leg back into normal position.

[Library]

Clara tries breaking the silence, ”Good news, is whoever leaves alive means that all of us get to escape! We’re almost done!”

Victoria doesn’t take her gaze off the watch, “I want to believe that. I seriously do. But I feel like this won’t be the end of it.”

“Optimism is all I have going right now, but yeah, I could see that.”

“Sorry’s probably the last thing you guys want to hear.” Victoria glances in the direction of the back room. “If you guys want to catch some sleep, I think now would be the best time to do it. It’s pretty late and we’ve got nothing else to do but wait.”

“No, no. If I sleep now, I’ll be a liability. Already fell out of a window tonight, don’t need to do anything else dumb.”

“Your choice, but we wouldn’t just leave you here or anything. I could wake you up when the challenge is over.

[Library Backroom]

Tyna gives a deep breath and flips the first paper

**[1057688630187110069451166863760544047847467986925200090305401496581536715]**

“No Thanks,” “Pass.”

Tyna flips the next slip.

**[424242424424242]**

“No.” “Passing.”

**[900001]**

“Not for me.” “Pass.”’

**[26922270480300237897631192058274051705227234631404777511581986830061831228752536850708644266]**

Ante grabs the paper.

**[3485832329456822856959438218856828384568]**

“That’s no good.”

**[5083885132406560660616476116942046252949167874782234025856877163918475423907551445003]**

“Not high enough.”

**[38388812869797928586]**

“I’ll pass”

**[282839697285]**

“Damn…”

**[2020]**

“I wish…”

**[169]**

“I see…”

“The round goes to Ante.”

Cathun winces and then sighs, “Let’s continue.”

[Library]

Opek begins to look around the library.

“Hey Opek… looking for something?” Victoria asks, not taking her gaze off the time.

“I don’t really know... Maybe a weapon or something useful hopefully.”

“In a library?” she laughs quietly to herself. “Maybe you can make a weapon out of knowledge. Or you’ll find some secret exit in a bookshelf and we can leave.”

Opek smiles lightly, “Usually libraries in weird fantasy worlds have some secret passageway. Maybe I’ll get lucky, hah!”

[Library Backroom]

The next round begins and the first paper is flipped.

**[178778625328986229940267147357008963445793710296406787047140086638101148722260542491004136016834728]**

“Sure.” Cathun grabs the paper

**[716658055740945599794435285117996930813368626386971484468088812284545396274794977396213693074353760]**

“Gah, is that bigger? I can’t tell...Fuck it- let’s end this round quickly.” Ante takes the slip of paper.

“The round goes to Ante.”

Cathun lets out a grunt, Ante glances down to see Cathun’s pants beginning to soak a blood red.

**[7940711879103615279378154914733007179284141425730716872845351723163606]**

“I’ll pass.” “Passing it.”

**[1223423393935858585829102031249595991024959595593201094958649020304095]**

“Nope, I’ll pass.” 

“I’ll pass.” Cathun sighs and looks at Ante, “It’s probably my fault you’re in here huh?”

**[294004005050093848593929250013956289582858686839929583899202330222299]**

“Um, pass.” Ante looks to Cathun, “It’s alright, in all honesty the same could be said for you.”

“I’ll... reluctantly take it.” She looks back at Ante, “Can we talk for a bit before one of us dies? Cause while I don’t want you to die...I want to fulfill my promise. I want to tell the others who Tyna is.” She looks down at her bleeding thighs.

**[920493280482099598475384957398573498573498537945837538495738597348592]**

“Sure, I’m still curious myself, so let’s talk.” Ante glances down again, “And I don’t want you to die either of course but...one of us isn’t going to be coming back.”

“Tyna is one of my comrades. An old classmate I found again one night of gambling…”

“Comrades? What do you mean by that?”

“He was with me that night. A birthday celebration. We all gambled the night away. He watched me win the bet that won the house. Although he did lose the house here, so once home, we gambled amongst ourselves.”

“I see...but that doesn’t explain the whole timeline of things here. How do you know him when he seems to exist in the 1920s?” Ante looks back at the note, “Oh, and pass. We’re still on a timer here.”

“I won that night, clearly. And Tyna was one of the first to visit me after I won the house. Helped me feel not as lonely, since Stu and Hazel were always working at night. He’s the only one that stayed...I knew him from highschool, although we didn’t talk much back then, I just recognized him when I saw him at the Casino. Although I don’t know when he started looking as old as he does now, I guess it was a more gradual change than you’d think, as I didn’t notice it, but we only talked once every few months.”

“But...if you had known him from high school how come he aged so much quicker? N-No offense again.” Ante turns to Tyna.

Tyna sighs, “Life happens.” He flips the paper.

**[123456789098765432345676543234565434567898765434567876543234567654345]**

“Ngh, pass...” Ante sighs and turns back to Cathun..

“I don’t know him well, but he is one of my gambling buddies, same as Clara. I wasn’t aware he was here tonight. I told him to go home cause tonight’s party likely wouldn’t let him sleep.”

“Right then.” Ante turns to look at Tyna again, “So why exactly are you here now?”

“I’ve never seen any of these books before.” Tyna looked at the face down slips, the girl who was still sobering up, and Ante, ”So I came into the library to get a book before I left. But then I was locked in here. So here I stayed until some masked man came in and gave me a note, asking for me to come up with a fun game for two people.”

“F-Fun game?! But, one of us is going to die! I don’t really think that’s ‘fun’! Just…whatever. Give me the next number so the sun doesn’t rise while we’re here.”

**[9999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999]**

“Sorry if I’m right about this Cathun” Ante grabs the paper.

“No, it’s fine, I’m the one that should be sorry.”

Tyna collects the slips of paper and announces “Ante wins this round.”

Ante turns away from Cathun and covers his ears.

Tyna gives a heavy sigh and stands up, walking to the book shelf. 

From inside the bookshelf behind Tyna’s chair shoots out a needle towards Cathun’s chest. Followed by a book slamming against her at full force, shattering her necklace’s gem, knocking her back into the floor, and there she lay, dead.

Tyna moves around books and from the bookshelf, pulls a glowing gem, handing it to Ante with a weak pat on the back, “Here’s your final gem.”

“Dammit...dammit…” Ante mutters, he looks back up at Tyna and takes the gem. “Thank you, I suppose...”

Ante flinches and touches his thigh, seeing the needle has removed itself.

[Library]

The group each jumps at the sound of three loud thuds coming from the backroom, focusing their attention on the door. Shortly after, Tyna walks out of the room with Ante, who had a very subtle limp about him.

Opek drops the books she’s holding and runs to Ante’s side, “What... What happened in there?”

“Well, that...happened…” Ante gives an exasperated sigh.

“Ante!” Clara gets up from the table, “You survived!”

Victoria goes over to Ante and begins to check him for injuries, “Where does it hurt?”

“The game was so weird.” Ante says, audibly tired, “but basically we had to pick the biggest number out of ten different numbers. And...I guess I just had the better guesses.” He looks at Victoria, “I’m fine, just had a needle in my leg.”

“Needle?” Opek says, worried, “Is… do you want someone to pull it out?”

“No, no, it's already out, much to my own dismay.”

“I... I see. Did you get a gem?”

“Yep, here.” He puts a hand out, with another glowing gem in his palm.

Opek takes the gem and slides it into the empty slot. “That’s five gems… but only four are glowing.”

“Wait, that’s right. The one that Victoria brought from the basement isn’t glowing yet.”

“This doesn’t sound good...”

“Okay, so the odd one out is a problem.” Victoria rubs the back of her neck, “But we have all the gems like we were supposed to, so… the ritual comes next, I think.”

Opek, fear on her face, looks at the necklace, “But… didn’t it mention something about the gems needing to be charged?”

Victoria sighs, looking around. “I don’t think there’s anything we can do about it at the moment. We might escape or we hit another problem. How are we even supposed to do the ritual…? I don’t know the first thing about exorcisms.”

Clara flips through the notebook and finds a new page.

**[Now you seem to have all five gems, if one happens to not be charged, then there should be a crown of sorts in Cathun’s bedroom, more instructions will be there. If all the gems seem to be charged, then you can start the ritual detailed on the next page.]**

“The bedroom?” Opek looks around, “Where is that exactly?”

“...what’s with the notebook.” Clara looks bewildered, “Why does it have a new page.”

“Didn’t something similar happen with the note in the basement?” Victoria shrugs off the thought.

“I have no idea at this point.”

“Well, that’s...awkward…” Ante rubs the back of his neck.

Opek turns to Stu. “Stu do you know where Cathun’s bedroom is?”

“It’s on the third floor. The room at the end of the hall first entered at the stairway.”

Opek nods thankfully. “That’s where we need to go. Since we don’t know how much time we have left, we should hurry.”

Victoria looks towards the backroom and breathes out an “I’m sorry, Cathun,” before turning back to the others. “We’re getting too close to sunrise for my liking. We should go.”

“We can mourn everyone after.” Clara starts walking towards the door, “Let’s go.”

Opek quickly glances at Ante, “Can you walk? Preferably run?”

“I-...” Ante pauses. “No, you guys are right, let’s move. I can walk, maybe run, but if I fall behind just go. I can catch up.”

[Chapter 7 End]

[4 Alive]

\--------------------

Post death thoughts on the project from Cathun's player, Tepig28:

This was sadly one of my more poorly explained games within the first Volume, which did lead to a death on my part. Though the death of the original protagonist does not signify the end of the series, the show must go on as they say, and trust me, it will go on.

See you next week


	9. Chapter 8: Obedience

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> There remains a single gem to charge, a crown of obedience in Cathun's bedroom, dawn approaches quickly, yet one discussion remains between them and escape.

[Third Floor]

The group arrives on the third floor and follow Stu’s directions in walking straight down the hall.

The group opens the door to Cathun’s bedroom. Inside lay a messy bed, destroyed curtains, and a shattered mirror, cracked around one point of impact.

Under the mirror, sitting on her desk, was a crown, next to it, a note.

Victoria carefully walks over to the note and picks it up as she begins to read it.

**[Place the uncharged gem into the slot on the crown, and then select one person to wear the crown. Any instructions after this act shall come naturally to the selected person.]**

“We have to vote... “Opek speaks, “but I don’t think it’s a paper related vote.”

Ante looks around, taking off his hat, “We just...have to choose?”

Victoria looks at her pocket watch, **[4:50 AM]** , “I know we’re a little low on time but let’s talk about it for a minute or two here.”

“Well... who should wear it?” Opek looks through the remaining four players, “Any volunteers?”

Victoria glances at the crown before turning around, “...if we don’t come to a decision, I’m doing it.”

“I mean, to be fair I’m alright with doing it as well.” Ante slowly begins to walk towards the desk.

“We don’t know what it does, so I’m volunteering myself just in case.” Victoria looks at Ante, making him stop.

Opek shivers, “If these gems are charged by... by the deaths of our friends, then does that mean...?”

“For what it’s worth, it doesn’t say they’ll die instantly. It just says they’ll know what to do.” Victoria crosses her arms and gives another glance at the crown.

Opek cautiously walks over and to the crown and places the uncharged gem in the slot.

“...Well, it didn’t explode.” Ante gives a weak chuckle.

Clara inches closer to the desk, “I can always rock a crown if you want.”

Victoria swiftly grabs the crown from Opek and glares at the group.

“Well, who hasn’t done much.” Ante looks at the group, inching closer to Victoria.

Opek looks down at her hands, now empty, “I haven’t... really done much to contribute, I know. I haven’t done any challenges, officially... all I’ve done is carry the necklace.”

Victoria holds the crown closer to her chest, “We’ll try to do this fair. Let’s go in a circle and say who we’d be voting for. If we tie, then... well, hell, let’s just do this first. I’ll start. I’m volunteering myself.”

Clara glances down at the crown and back at Victoria, “Most of us have a self sacrifice complex Victoria at this point, just hand the crown over and let’s get this over with.”

“I take it you’re voting for your-”

“Jeez, let’s not spend too much time on this.” Ante interrupts Victoria, taking the crown from her relatively weak grasp and places it on his head.

“It’s okay. Everything will probably be okay.” Clara steps in front of Ante, “What’s going on?”

“Ack!” Ante grabs at his chest. ”Oh...okay, whaaat…”

A voice booms in Ante’s head. 

**[You shall tell no one your instructions, you shall simply follow them. Or you will be punished otherwise.]**

“U-Um...understood?” Ante says out loud.

“Ante who are you talking to?” Opek approaches slowly and cautiously.

Victoria holds back Opek, “The note...’any instructions shall come naturally’.He must be hearing something.”

“Telepathy maybe?”

“I- um, don’t think I can answer that.” Ante glances down at his hand, still over his chest.

“It’s ok. I just... it threw me off a little.” 

**[Your first instruction. Is to open the cabinet the crown was on. Here you shall find the house’s contract.]**

Ante walks up to the cabinet the crown was on and opens it.

**[Look at the group in front of you. One of these three shall be given the deed. For the rest of the night, this person is not allowed to die. You yourself are unable to keep the deed for yourself.]**

“O...okay...” Ante takes the deed out from the cabinet in front of him. Ante turns around and hesitates for a second. “Here, this is yours Victoria.” He hands the folded deed to Victoria.

Victoria steps forward and accepts it, “I guess this really is my job, huh.”

Victoria turns the paper away and reads it.

“What does it say?” Opek looks at Victoria, a worried expression across her face.

“This is a... I think it’s the deed to the house.”

“Are you... to be the next house owner?”

Victoria gives an amused laugh as she begins to ball up the paper she was given, “God I hope not.”

**[Open the other cabinet. Inside should be a gun.]**

Ante looks to the other cabinet, he opens it and flinches. He doesn’t grab what’s inside immediately.

“Phew...this better work the way I hope it does.” He mutters under his breath. He reaches in and pulls out a gun.

Victoria stands between Ante and the two others, “Hey, careful now...”

**[To fill the next gemstone you must point this at the group, so they aren’t shocked as to what your next actions may be.]**

Ante takes a shaky breath, and points the gun towards the other three.

Victoria’s face goes white as she takes a step back, almost losing balance, “Ante?”

“Trust me.” Ante gives a strained smile.

“Ante I’m scared...” Opek hides behind Clara, “What are you doing with that gun?”

“I don’t know what you’re hearing, but...“ Victoria shakes her head, “Not them, Ante. I trust you, but please don’t.”

“Hey now, Victoria, if Ante trusts this plan. I trust him.” Clara attempts to step in front of Victoria, causing Opek to switch to hiding behind Victoria.

Victoria stops her, “I know. If you’re going to move, stand next to me, not in front.”

“Good with me.”

**[You should shoot your closest friend of the select three. If you can not come to terms with this idea. Then shoot yourself. This is your final order. You may remove your crown once this is done.]**

”Everybody...you need to close your eyes.”

Opek closes her eyes and clenches her fist. Clara steps next to Victoria and closes her eyes. Victoria tilts her head back, closes her eyes, and exhales.

“Now...I just need you to promise me something...“ Ante pulls the gun to his head, “Make it out alive. For everyone else who died...and...for me.” With one final breath, Ante pulls the trigger.

The sound of a gunshot fills the room which was full of arguments mere moments before. Followed by the sound of Ante’s body hitting the floor and the crown, now laying at the three girls’ feet.

Victoria flinches and opens her eyes to see the now deceased Ante. “O-oh... oh my god.”

“Should I open my eyes?” Opek asks, slowly opening her eyes, placing her eyes on her mouth. “Ante... oh my god... Ante no!”

“Fuck. Okay.” Clara opens her eyes and turns away from the body.

Victoria collapses on the floor and begins to repeat the same phrase over and over. “I should’ve, I should’ve, I should’ve-”

[Chapter 8 End]

[3 Alive]

\--------------------

Post death thoughts on the project from Ante's player, Rubbish:

I absolutely loved playing ONE with everybody, and I hope that Ante's death (along with the rest of his character) was enjoyable to read, and experience as it was to write. Of course, everyone else had amazing characters, and Tepig did a great job with these challenges and characters of their own!

i dont know how to end this uhhhh


	10. Chapter 9: The First Escape

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> One hour is left, the ritual to weaken the spell on the house, and their final trial. Who will escape the night?

“Alright. Let’s go.” Clara walks past Victoria, giving a gentle pat on the back and grabs the crown, removing the gem and tossing the crown onto the ground.

Opek’s hands begin to shake as her face grows pale, “Oh god... there’s just the three of us...“

Gem in hand, Clara begins flipping through the notebook, stopping one page. Here she began to read aloud.

**[Weakening the spell on the house.]**

**[The ritual should be performed in a room with space, the foyer is likely the best option. Once there one of the assistants should help in making the ritual circle drawn on the next page. The one with the deed should sit in the center of the circle. The rest of the ritual should progress naturally from there.]**

“The foyer...” Opek begins walking towards the exit, “we should hurry. If we only have an hour left. That isn’t much time.”

Victoria picks herself up and looks at Ante, muttering under her breath, eventually turning to Opek and Clara and nodding. “...We can’t let it have been for nothing.”

Clara nods, “Alright. Let’s do this. For the sake of everyone that sacrificed themselves, let’s end this.”

[January 17, 1920?] [Foyer]

As the group arrives in the foyer, Opek taking the gem from Clara and placing it in the notebook begins to speak, “So what do we need to do?”

“There’s an image of the circle in one of the pages. I guess we gotta recreate it.” responds Victoria, walking over to Clara.

“Is there anything I can do to help?” Opek looks at Hazel, who was looking through the notebook with Clara and Victoria.

Hazel glances up, “Can you fetch the salt from the shed? Should be outside, around that area.” Hazel points in a general direction.

“Will do!” Opek quickly leaves through the front exit.

“‘The one with the deed in hand should sit in the center of the circle.’ Well...“ While waiting for Opek to return, Victoria begins to flatten out the deed she had previously balled up, albeit unhappily. 

[5:10 AM] [Shed]

Opek finally locates the shed, she peeks inside, she sees Clarice’s body, slumped over on the table in front of her, in the middle of the table sat the salt she was looking for. She winces upon seeing the body, quickly grabbing the salt and leaving, muttering an “I’m sorry I couldn’t do anything to help.”

[5:15 AM] [Foyer]

Opek returns to the Foyer with salt in hand, as she hands it to Hazel.

Hazel turns to Victoria, “Where will you be sitting?”

Victoria goes for the center of the room and sits, crossing her legs. “Is this enough space to make the circle?”

“I will assume yes.” Hazel begins to make the circle, book in one hand, salt in the other, “Are you happy to be the new owner of the house, now that the evil will be dealt with tonight?”

“I don’t want anything to do with this place after tonight. The ‘evil’ might be gone, but not the memories of shit I can never hope to forget.”

“For all my joking about wanting this house, at this point I’d rather see it burn.” Clara looks at Victoria, “No offense to your lovely new property.”

Victoria snorts. “None taken.”

“You can always give it away.” Hazel pauses, “...like all the others did...”

“Every owner got rid of the house?” Opek tilts her head.

Hazel sighs, finishing the circle and standing up without another word.

“Okay,” starts Victoria, “we got the circle and the deed. Anything else?”

“You must put on the necklace with the gems in place. Then, once the ritual is complete, the spell on the house should be weakened enough to where the ‘evil of the house’ can be dealt with.” Hazel steps away from the group, gesturing at Opek.

Opek removes the necklace from her neck and hands it to Victoria, “Good luck.”

“I’m not a jewelry kind of person, but I’ll make an exception.” Victoria puts the necklace around her neck.

Opek rubs the back of her neck, “It feels weird not being the one to wear it.”

The five stones in the necklace begin to glow a brighter purple, the deed and salt on the ground starting a gentle red glow.

As the group stared in amazement, the five gems shattered, the fragments scattering to the floor around them. The deed glows a deep purple before burning up into smoke in Victoria’s hands.

Victoria coughs and waves whatever remaining smoke there was away.

As the last of the smoke clears, a thud is heard, guiding the gaze of the four girls to the top of the Foyer stairs. Standing there was a werewolf carrying the spider from the second challenge.

Victoria quickly gets to her feet as Opek runs to her side, standing in front of her.

The werewolf begins to cough, after a few seconds something flies out of it’s throat and lands a few feet in front of the girls.

Opek signals for Clara to go over.

Once Clara picks it up, Victoria peaks from behind Opek, “What is it?”

“It’s uh, it’s a key.” Clara turns around, key in hand and confused look on her face.

Opek’s stance loosens up, “To what?”

“Clara,” Victoria gently pushes past Opek, “we don’t have much time left, let’s find where this goes before we get stuck here forever.”

Clara nods and runs past the two girls, as she places her hands on the door a voice booms from behind them, “Stop right there!”

Victoria turns around. “Who the hell...?”

In front of her stood Stu, who was pointing two guns at the girls, “I’m not letting you kill me now. Your night ends here.”

Visible confusion crosses Victoria’s face, “Kill you? What the hell are you talking about?”

“You were never meant to get past the werewolf!” Without looking away from the girls, Stu points the gun at the werewolf and shoots, “And now you’re almost home, I’m not letting it end like this.”

Opek slowly gets in front of VIctoria, getting into a defensive stance and gives a piercing glare, “You might not want this to happen, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t going to anyway.”

“Give up, Stu.” Victoria turns towards the door, “We’re leaving.”

“Why did your plan involve making us vote for each other? What was your plan here?” Clara stops Victoria in front of the door.

“I don’t know who’s been telling you about the gemstones or the ritual, or who even told you about the machine, but you’ve had me and Hazel running around all night finishing challenges you were never supposed to reach.”

Hazel slowly and nervously inches closer to Stu’s side, repeatedly mouthing ‘sorry’ to the floor.

“We need to go. Now!” Opek raises her voice at the other two.

Stu quickly points both guns at Opek, “Don’t move a muscle.”

“Come on Hazel, I actually liked you!” Clara says, exhaustion in her voice, “You were just here helping us out. Like Stu, you know, your plan was really dumb. But Hazel??”

Opek whispers as she begins slowly taking steps back, “You two run towards the door. I’ll try and keep you guys safe.”

“I’m with Stu on this one.” Hazel says, holding herself, “If you get rid of the spell, me and Stu won’t survive the night...”

“Tell that to the people you killed.” Opek stops moving back, her voice getting louder the longer she spoke, “Spencer... Myra, Clarice, Taylor, Percy, Adrian, Cathun and Ante didn’t deserve the SHIT YOU PUT THEM THROUGH!”

Stu lets out a heavy sigh, “We were simply doing what we were told. Laying out the items needed for the games, writing notes...“

“I just...wanted to survive.” Hazel begins laughing, holding her chest, “You’re no different, sacrificing others so you could survive the night.”

“If we get rid of the spell?” Victoria turns, “We did the ritual, isn’t it over-?”

“You weakened the spell, but you haven’t gotten rid of it.”

“So, let me get this right.” Clara glares, “The gems, the things to power this ritual to kill you, require a death. So in your endless wisdom, you made us play death games to power the gems to stop you.”

“We didn’t have a god damned choice!” Hazel raises her voice, “If we didn’t help you we would’ve been killed. But if you guys remove the curse, we won’t survive. So that’s why we can’t let you live.”

“Wait...” Clara’s stance loosens up slightly, “this wasn’t your plan?”

“All of us received our orders from higher ups. We never have a say in what we’re doing, death looms over all of us, you’re luckier than any of us, you’re not threatened with death for not following directions.”

“Your higher ups... are they SNARE?” Opek tenses up, “They said they wanted to help us get out, they told us about the ritual.”

“No, I don’t know who Snare is...“ Hazel shrugs.

“So, were you the masked figure or was that someone else?” Clara crosses her arms.

“It was both of us... We had to switch around for who was supervising you while you were doing challenges. We ran around and set up the next ones on the list, as you were never meant to get past the werewolf. Whoever Snare is told you about the basement and messed everything up.”

“What’s in the basement that’s so important?” Clara steps closer to the door.

Victoria talks to herself quietly, “But you wanted us all to die here to the werewolf, because if we didn’t, you’d be the ones in trouble...“

“None of us were able to harm you, due to our circumstances. But with a weakened spell, we should be able to harm you as we wish.” Stu’s guns target the three girls.

Opek takes a nervous step forward. “I don’t know what your plan is, but if you want to harm them, you’re going to have to go through me.”

“If you have a death wish, then so be it.” Stu glares at Opek, the sincerity apparent in his eyes.

“Why do you need to kill us? Can’t you just lock us in the basement or something?” Clara glares at Stu.

“Okay while I appreciate not dying, I don’t want to be put back in the basement either-” Victoria comments to Clara.

“Stu, Hazel. This doesn’t need to end in violence.” Clara pushes her back up against the door.

“Somebody here isn’t going to leave here alive after six. I don’t want it to be me.” Stu begins to tighten his finger on the trigger.

Victoria pushes past Opek and begins to run towards Stu.

“Victoria no!” Opek tackles Victoria to the floor, “I’m not letting anymore of my friends die!”

As the trigger is pulled, Opek and Victoria manage to dodge it, however, the bullet grazes Clara’s chest.

Laying on the floor, Opek turns around and sees Clara kneel, hand on her chest, “Clara!”

Clara grunts in pain, “God dammit Stu, couldn’t even hit anything important. You really suck at being evil, don’t you.”

Opek glances up at Stu, terrified. She quickly shoots up and runs out of the front door, grabbing both Victoria and Clara by the arm, “We need to move! Come on!”

Opek pushes the two girls out of the front door, “Victoria! Get Clara out of here!”

“What are you doing? Run away!”

“I’ll cover you!”

“Don’t do anything stupid!”

Opek walks slowly backwards, a bullet whizzes past Opek, missing everyone and hitting the car, the sound of glass shattering fills the air.

Stu drops his guns and runs after them, dragging Hazel by the arm, “Get back here you gremlins!”

Once the group is all outside, she slams the door shut behind them.

Victoria adjusts Clara, one arm over her shoulder.

“Okay...“ Clara looks up, “use the key to check the trunk of the car. Snare’s apparently some sort of god-damned genius organization, so they might have put something there.” Clara points at the time traveling car, which now had a shattered window.

The girls run to the car and attempt to open the trunk, realizing quickly it’s not a car key.

“What does this key go to?” Clara whispers as the front doors fly open.

The girls quickly hide behind the car. Peeking around the car, Opek sees the two talking before splitting up shortly after.

“Victoria, take the other side of the car, I’ll watch this side. We can’t let them get to Clara.” Opek whispers.

Victoria nods and watches Stu go around the house, “Try and keep an eye on Hazel.”

“On it.” Opek watches Hazel go around the house, to somewhere she is very familiar with, the basement. “Are they trying to prevent us from going somewhere...?”

“We’re going to need something to stop the blood.” Victoria removes her jacket and tosses it to Opek. “Clara, how you holding up?”

“For being shot, not terrible?” Clara begins answering as Opek ties the jacket around Clara’s chest, making sure it covers the wound, “I mean, it hurts a lot, like a lot, but the whole scared for my life aspect means it’s dulled. I would like to go to a hospital soon. I can probably go with you if I get support though.”

Opek finishes wrapping the jacket around Clara as she speaks, “They seemed anxious about something in the basement... we should go after Hazel.” Victoria and Opek begin to stand up, “We should hurry. Who knows how much time we have left? Besides, even if we’re in the 1920s, the cops still exist. The gunshots might have alerted some.”

Victoria offers a hand to Clara and the girls walk into the basement.

As they enter, they see Hazel sitting at the table where voting was once held at the start of the night.

VIctoria begins to look around the room in a panic, after a few seconds of scanning the room and seeing nothing out of the ordinary, she flips through the notebook, stopping on a page where the neat handwriting had finally stopped, now being one barely legible sentence.

**[GET ME OUT OF HERE please]**

Victoria shivers and closes the book as she turns around to leave. As Opek turns to follow, a banging is heard that echoes from the back room, similar to something slamming against metal.

Opek slowly approaches the door, “Victoria, watch Clara.” Opek carefully places the key in the lock, opening the door.

Inside the room lay two figures, one dressed similarly to a plague doctor, is tied up and leaning against a large metal contraption. The other is slumped in the corner, a dark purple figure, with glowing red eyes and white streaks on its body.

Opek looks at the metal contraption, containing a number of clear tubes and rusted gears, leading to a hole in the wall. The clear tubes are occasionally splattered with blood.

“Who... are you people?” Opek asks, terror in her voice.

“People?” The purple figure looks over to Opek and stands upright, ending up larger than the oil monster who had loomed over them prior, “I would prefer not to be called a people.”

Opek takes a step back as Victoria and Clara enter, Clara looks up at the large slouching creature, “Are you the evil of the house?”

“Evil? I wouldn’t say evil. That sounds mean, makes the world seem black and white. I’m simply a lesser demon, following orders, capture the house and claim the city, but...” The lesser demon swings around to view the man in the corner, “this one decided to lock the house in the 1920s. So I decided to trap him here. Reliving the same 10 years over and over for 100 years is a pain. But tonight is special, it’s the tenth cycle. So the house is disappearing soon, erased from everyone’s memory. So if I’m going down, I’m not going down alone.”

“Did you trick Cathun into bringing us all here?” Opek asks, not moving any further or closer from the demon.

“I didn’t do anything. She hosted the party of her own accord. I only gave the orders to Stu and Hazel, to eventually lead you here. I still have places to be, places to go, I have orders to complete.”

“So if you’re just following orders, then who’s behind all this? Can you tell us that?”

“Even I am not certain of that. Though not like it matters, you shouldn’t live long enough for it to matter anyway.”

“Simply following orders involved getting locked in this room, huh?” Victoria crosses her arms, an unamusement look on her face.

“I locked myself in here, best way to make sure he stays in here as that organization will only harm our efforts. Although...” Swiftly, the demon turns their head towards Victoria, “From what I learned over the past few years...“ He takes a step closer, “I could just...“ He reaches his hand out towards her, “Make sure none of us have to die here...“ His piercing red eyes glow a gentle purple flame.

Opek steps between Victoria and the demon, glaring at him, “Don’t touch her.”

“And I should trust you because...?” Victoria glares at him.

“Because you’re running out of time.”

“I’ll give you that. What is it you’re proposing?”

“The spell is broken when my presence is no longer in the house, thus allowing you to leave, with your friends...“ he glances at Clara, “relatively intact.”

“In return for what?” Victoria looks at him, pokerfaced.

“Nothing major is asked of you. I simply wish to stay alive. A shake of a hand seals the deal.”

“But if we let the evil out, it could infect something else.” Clara comments, “Do you want to force another group to go through with this process again?”

The demon gives a heavy sigh, “You get to keep your snare buddy over there alive. Maybe they can help your future problems if you’re worried. He’s been here a few years, injured time and time again, but given that you’re here now, he’s still usable.”

“Can’t say I trust anything to do with this house, but I can’t say this doesn’t sound mutually beneficial. Better than-” she glances over her shoulder at Clara, “getting shot or trapped here, ayway. ...We might have a deal.”

Victoria shakes the hand of the demon, her hand enveloped a gentle purple flame, followed by the large monstrosity disappearing into smoke. 

“Can’t anything in this house be normal for once?” Victoria coughs and waves the smoke out of her face.

The clock chimes six, the snare member gives a muffled sigh and collapses.

“Hey,” Clara begins, “if we can leave the house now, can I please go to the hospital?”

As Victoria goes to untie the unconscious SNARE member, Opek leaves to the main basement room, seeing Hazel, table covered in her own blood, seemingly new tear streaks on her cheeks.

“We got out but... something feels wrong. This doesn’t feel like a win.” Opek sighs, helping Victoria with carrying the SNARE member and Clara.

“I don’t think anything short of everyone being alive again would be a happy ending.” Clara sighs, “It’s not about winning. It’s about staying alive.”

“I don’t know how we’re going to explain this to hospital staff, but I’ll come up with something on the way there. We should really just... go. Do what we can before we focus on anything else.” Victoria’s voice goes quiet.

“We should tell the families what happened.” Opek looks at Clara and Victoria.

“Will they believe us?” Clara readjusts herself.

“It may be the only closure they get. So even if they don’t believe us at first... it’s only fair we tell them.” Victoria opens the basement doors to see the fresh sunlight and the heavy 2020 air.

“Is it over? Finally?” Clara takes a deep breath. 

[Volume 1 End]

[3 Escaped]

[Total casualties: 10]

January 17, 2020

\--------------------

Post-project thoughts from Clara's player, EmberCelica:

I was really happy doing this project, it was incredibly fun to do. It was fascinating to watch the story morph, as everyone started to get more invested. I even admit the story hit new harder than I had expected. I hope you enjoyed it, I certainly did.

A special message from Opek's player, Poke:

I think of the thoughts I do have, I just wanna say thanks for letting me be apart of this project. I didn't think my character would survive as long as she did, and even if she wasn't as impactful as the others, I'm glad that I was still able to contribute to something like this

Finally, a special message from Victoria's player, TheAmeriFin:

Going into it, I had no plans for what Victoria would end up being and no expectations that she would survive to the end. I think in those regards, I ended up as surprised as everyone else. I hope she was an enjoyable character to root for. 

Anyway, now that Volume 1 is over, I'll be working on a few more things that she's involved in. So you might see her in the future!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This concludes the first Volume, and do believe me, there is going to be more, new protagonist, new cast, new challenges.  
> Thank you for reading this far, the series has only begun, some side content will be made between volumes, not just from me, but other participants in the project as well.  
> I believe the story can only go up from here, once again, thank you for reading and spending your time supporting this project. Have a good


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